Hyderabad: Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) appointed former New Zealand pacer James Franklin as the new bowling coach of the franchise, replacing former South African pacer Dale Steyn, who opted out from the coaching duties for personal reasons for the forthcoming India Premier League (IPL) 2024 season.
SRH announced Franklin's appointment as pace bowling coach on X, formerly known as Twitter and wrote, "Dale Steyn will not be joining us this season due to personal reasons and James Franklin will be the Pace Bowling Coach for this season. Welcome on board, James!"
Franklin has played for Mumbai Indians for two consecutive seasons in 2011 and 2012. His stint with SRH will mark the beginning of his first coaching spell in the cash-rich league. Currently, he is serving the assistant coach duties of Islamabad United in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and was also the head coach of Durham (Vitality Blasts).
The former left-arm pacer will look after the coaching responsibilities alongside former New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori, who will be donning the head coach duties of the Hyderabad-based franchise. Vettori joined the franchise in August 2023 after the franchise's forgettable last season. The Kiwi duo have worked together in Middlesex (county cricket) as well as Birmingham Phoenix (the Hundred).
The 43-year-old would be keen to bring the best out of SRH's top-quality pace bowling line-up which consists of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Pat Cummins, Marco Jansen, Umran Malik, T Natarajan, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Jaydev Unadkat and the uncapped Indian Akash Singh. Even SRH's spin bowling unit boasts talent which includes the likes of Wanindu Hasaranga, Washington Sundar and Shahbaz Ahmed while Travis Head and Aiden Markram can also roll their arm over with off-spin.
Franklin has played 31 Tests, 110 ODIs and 38 T20Is for New Zealand between 2001 and 2013.
Earlier in the day, Sunrisers Hyderabad announced the appointment of ODI World Cup and World Test Championship (WTC) winning skipper Pat Cummins as the skipper of the franchise, replacing Markram, who failed to make his impact as the leader as the team managed to win only four matches out of 14 games.
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