David Warner has been axed as captain of Indian Premier League side Sunrisers Hyderabad with Kane Williamson taking over as skipper
Warner replaced as Sunrisers captain in IPL shock
Kane Williamson has replaced David Warner as captain of the Sunrisers Hyderabad as the former champions seek to turn around their flagging Indian Premier League campaign.
Hyderabad languish bottom of the table in the eight-team tournament having managed one win in their six matches under Warner, who led them to their maiden IPL title in 2016.
In a statement released on Saturday, the franchise also suggested a change would be made to the combination of internationals used in their playing XI for Sunday's upcoming match against Rajasthan Royals.
The Royals sit seventh on the table with just two wins from six matches.
Hyderabad did not elaborate on what the change or changes to their personnel for that game would be, but they featured Williamson, Warner, Jonny Bairstow and Rashid Khan in their most recent side, which suffered a seven-wicket defeat to top-ranked Chennai Super Kings on Wednesday, despite Warner's 55-ball 57.
Options on the bench include Jason Roy, Jason Holder and Mohammad Nabi.
"This decision has not come lightly as the management respects the enormous impact David Warner has had for the franchise over a number of years," the team said in a statement.
"The team management has also made the decision that they will be changing their overseas combination for tomorrow's (Sunday's) match against Rajasthan Royals," Hyderabad added.
Warner lamented his slow batting in Wednesday's defeat by Chennai Super Kings and blaming himself for the loss and saying he took too long in compiling a half-century.
"I take full responsibility for the way I batted, I batted slow and hit the fielders," Warner said.
"Kane (Williamson) and Kedar (Jadhav) got us to a respectable total, but at the end of the day I take full responsibility.
"I probably hit 15 good shots to fielders and they are the ones that make or break the innings. I took too many balls."
While it was Warner's second fifty of the current IPL season and he is Hyderabad's second highest run scorer with 193 from six innings, his strike rate of 110.28 is by some distance the lowest of his 12-year IPL career, and well down on his IPL career average of 140.13.
New Zealand captain Williamson missed Hyderabad's first three matches with an elbow injury and scored 16, 66 and 26 without being dismissed in the past three games.