David Warner in fresh blow before T20 World Cup amid sad Jake Fraser-McGurk IPL drama

David Warner's preparations for the T20 Cricket World Cup have taken another hit after the veteran Aussie batter was dropped for his Delhi side's must-win Indian Premier League clash by Aussie coach Ricky Ponting. The news wasn't much better for Warner's Capitals teammate Jake Fraser-McGurk, who was out for a duck in the 19-run win over the Lucknow Super Giants.

Despite victory for the Aussie pair, it does not look likely to be enough to book a playoffs spot for the Capitals, who needed a massive win against Marcus Stoinis' LSG to have even a faint chance. Stoinis and LSG will also fall short of qualifying for the the playoffs after they needed to win this match and their final match to have a chance.

It represents a disastrous scenario for all three of the IPL's Australian coaches, with the Capitals' Ponting and Lucknow's Justin Langer joining Trevor Bayliss and the bottom team Punjab Kings as teams to miss out on the playoffs. But it was yet another snub from Ponting towards Warner that could have Aussie selectors a little nervous ahead of next month's T20 World Cup in the USA and Caribbean.

In a final regular season game that his side had to win, Ponting decided not to pick Warner - and not for the first time this season. It continues an underwhelming IPL campaign for the veteran batter whose made 168 runs in this campaign at an average of just 21, after finishing with scores of 18, 10, 8, one and one - having been sidelined recently with a hand injury.

Those numbers should be little concerning for Aussie selectors heading into the World Cup, having selected Warner ahead of young gun Fraser-McGurk, who's lit up the IPL this season in record-breaking fashion. Fraser-McGurk has already created history with the most half centuries in under 20 balls (three) in the competition's history and he has made nearly twice as many runs as Warner this campaign.

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Mixed fortunes for David Warner and Jake Fraser-McGurk in IPL

The 22-year-old was sadly out for a duck in his final match against LSG but he still made 330 runs in 8 matches at a staggering strike rate of 237 for the Capitals. The contrasting fortunes of the Aussie batters have again left questioning why Aussie selectors did not opt to look to the future by picking Fraser-McGurk, while pondering whether Warner's poor IPL campaign will signal his final one in the competition.

David Warner's future in the IPL comes into question

It was sad end for Warner, who has been one of the leading lights of IPL since his debut in 2009 but has had a poor tournament. The New South Welshman has made the most IPL runs of any overseas batter, third overall behind Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan, and three times topped the season's run-scoring charts.

Warner's experience and popularity in India means he could realistically still return to the IPL next year, but he will be 38 and after this season may not command the sort of fee he's used to. Fraser-McGurk will definitely be back, even if his dismissal showed his inexperience and ended a scintillating debut campaign on a sour note.

Opposition skipper KL Rahul set the trap to get out the Aussie young gun by placing one of the two fielders allowed out of the circle in the powerplay at long on. Fraser-McGurk tried to open up on his off-side and smash Arshad Khan down the ground but skied the ball straight to long-on where Naveen-ul-Haq took a simple catch.

After his exit Abishek Porel (58 off 33 balls) and Shai Hope (38 off 27) put on 92 in eight overs. Late hitting from the impressive Tristan Stubbs (57 no off 25) and Rishabh Pant (33 off 23) lifted Delhi to 4-208. It looked like being a par score but Ishant Sharma (3-34) reduced LSG to 4-44 to leave them reeling. At that point, the big win that Delhi needed was on the cards until LSG's Nicolas Pooran (61 off 27) and Arshad (58 no off 33) rallied to get them to 9-189, in a result that did few favours to either side.

with agencies