Australia captain Pat Cummins became the second-most expensive player in Indian Premier League (IPL) history after SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) signed him for Rs 20.5 crore. He first became the most expensive player ever in the IPL history for a brief period after his price soared past the Rs 20-crore mark, which was more than England's Sam Curran. Curran was the most expensive IPL purchase in the last year’s auction.
But Cummins was overshadowed by his teammate Mitchell Starc, who was bought for a whopping Rs 24.75 crore by Kolkata Knight Riders.
Ever since Cummins has joined SRH, it is being speculated that he might lead the team. SunRisers Hyderabad head coach Daniel Vettori, who expressed pleasure after securing the services of Australia's World Cup-winning captain Cummins, told JioCinema that his role will be definitely discussed in the coming months. It is to be noted that South Africa batter Aiden Markram is the current captain of SRH.
"I think it's obviously a discussion (on Cummins being a leader at SRH). There is a lot of cricket to be played between now and the IPL 2024 and Cummins has been so successful for Australia. He pretty much wins everything he touches. So it will surely be a conversation to have," Vettori said.
Former New Zealand seamer Simon Doull, during an interaction with Star Sports, Cummins's purchase was to lead the 'Orange Army'.
"Maybe they are looking for a captain. We have joked a little bit about it. Does (Aiden) Markram play every game now? They haven't announced their skipper. Does Pat Cummins take over that franchise? Does he come in and play a lot more instead of a (Marco) Jansen next year for them?"
"That's going to be the question mark. Now that you have paid all this money, you have got to get him into that team. Where does he start and whose place does he take? They have got a lot of high-quality overseas talent," Doull added.
Former India batter Wasim Jaffer said: “We might see a captaincy shift in this franchise. You might see Pat Cummins become captain. Again the experience he has of captaining in this format is very little. He's captained in Tests and ODIs but he hasn't captained in this format. That's going to be a challenge but I think they've put together a good side."
But not all experts feel that Cummins can be a success as a captain of SRH.
Former South Africa player AB de Villiers, who has predicted that SRH can win the IPL 2024 title, said that he would stick with present captain Markram as the captain despite rumours that Cummins can takeover the reins after joining the team.
"I will still go with Aiden Markram as captain. I've played with this guy before. He's got a very, very good leadership brain on his head. I think he'll do better this season, and that's it," said De Villiers.
SRH released 6 players ahead of the retention deadline and signed the same number of players at the IPL Auction held in Dubai earlier this week. SRH finished last in the IPL 2023 after they won just four matches of the total 14 matches.
SRH SQUAD FOR IPL 2024
Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram (c), Marco Jansen, Rahul Tripathi, Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Sanvir Singh, Heinrich Klaasen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Agarwal, T. Natarajan, Anmolpreet Singh, Mayank Markande, Upendra Singh Yadav, Umran Malik, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Shahbaz Ahmed , Travis Head, Wanindu Hasaranga, Pat Cummins, Jaydev Unadkat, Akash Singh, Jhathavedh Subramanyan.
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