IPL 2018: After Warner ban, Sunrisers Hyderabad pick Alex Hales as replacement

Hyderabad: Allowed substitutes after a ban on David Warner in the wake of ball-tampering saga, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Saturday named Alex Hales as the Australian cricketer’s replacement for the 2018 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

“The Sunrisers Hyderabad have picked Alex Hales as the replacement for David Warner. The opening batsman was bought for his base price of INR 1 crore from the Registered and Available Player Pool (RAPP) list,” said the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in a media release.

“The attacking batsman is the first and only England player till date to score a T20I century. He is also the top-ranked English player and the only one to feature in the top-10 list of the ICC T20I rankings,” added BCCI.

Warner, who was to captain the Hyderbad-based IPL franchise, was barred from IPL XI after BCCI decided to disallow him and Steve Smith, who was to captain Rajasthan Royals, after Cricket Australia’s one-year ban on the Australian duo for breaching CA’s code of conduct by getting involved in ball-tampering during the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town.