Australia’s World Cup-winning captain Pat Cummins will lead Sunrisers Hyderabad in the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL), the franchise announced on Monday.
The 30-year-old pacer was bought by SRH for a whopping Rs. 20.50 crore in the IPL auction in December last year, making him the second-costliest player in the event’s history.
Cummins replaces South African Aiden Markram, who led SRH in the 2023 season.
Cummins has earlier played for Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils, now Delhi Capitals, in the IPL, but this will be his first captaincy stint in the lucrative T20 league. In fact, he has not led a team in top-flight T20 cricket before.
But he has achieved huge success as Australia captain, leading the team to victory in the World Test Championship and the 2023 ODI World Cup, with both wins in the finals coming against India.
In the 42 IPL matches he has played so far, Cummins has taken 45 wickets with four for 34 being his best bowling figures in a match. With the bat, he has scored 379 runs at an average of 18.95 with 66 not out being the highest.
He made his IPL debut in 2014 for KKR but played just one match that season. He had a stint with Delhi Daredevils in 2017 and opted out of the IPL for a few years.
He returned to KKR as the costliest player of the IPL 2020 auction with a whopping price tag of Rs. 15.50 crore.
He was with KKR till 2022 and withdrew from IPL 2023 to focus on international cricket. He entered the auction for the 2024 season, where he became the first player in IPL history to get a bid of Rs. 20 crore and above, though his national teammate Mitchell Starc overtook him with a Rs. 24.75 crore bid from KKR.
For SRH, Cummins will be its third captain in three seasons. New Zealand’s Kane Williamson led SRH to an eighth-place finish in 2022 before he was released.
In the 2023 season, SRH finished last under Markram’s captaincy with only four wins in 14 league games. Markram remains in the SRH squad for the upcoming season.
Besides the captaincy change, SRH had also named a new head coach ahead of the 2024 IPL season, with former New Zealand left-arm spinner and captain Daniel Vettori taking over from Brian Lara.
Former New Zealand all-rounder James Franklin will take over as SRH bowling coach in place of South African Dale Steyn.
SRH will begin its IPL 2024 campaign against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens on March 23.
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