Hyderabad: Australian skipper Pat Cummins, who broke the bank and was sold for a staggering Rs 20.50 crore to Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League auction, has now been appointed as the skipper of the franchise on Monday.
The franchise announced his appointment through social media as Cummins, the second most expensive buy of the IPL history, will take over captaincy duties from Aiden Markram, who has led the Sunrisers Eastern Cape side, a sister team of the SRH franchise, to the second successive SA T20 League title.
The ODI World Cup-winning Australian skipper had become the most expensive player to be sold in the IPL, surpassing Punjab Kings' Sam Curran, who was snared for ₹18.50 crores by the Punjab Kings in the 2023 IPL auction. However, his record was short-lived as his Australian teammate Mitchell Starc was sold to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for a whopping ₹24.75 crore.
Markram, who led the SRH in the previous two seasons, failed to make an impact as the franchise saw them finishing at the bottom of the points table in IPL 2023, winning only four games from 14 matches.
Cummins, on the other hand, had an extraordinary 2023, proved the bowler captain stereotype wrong by winning the World Test Championship (WTC) in June, retaining the Ashes in England in August and clinching a record sixth Men's ODI World Cup as captain of Australia. Notably, Cummins hasn't led any franchise so far in his career including IPL and Big Bash League.
This will be the first occasion when Cummins will be captaining an IPL franchise, reuniting with the assistant coach of Australia Daniel Vettori, who is the new SRH head coach. He will also become the second Aussie to captain the Hyderabad-based side after his fellow country-mate David Warner, who led the franchise to their maiden trophy in 2016. Warner had captained SRH in 67 matches from 2015 to 2021.
Cummins has previously been a part of Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL.
Sunrisers Hyderabad will open its IPL 2024 campaign on March 23 against two-time champions KKR at the Eden Gardens, followed by playing its first home match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on March 27 against five-time champions Mumbai Indians.
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