India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has expressed his “shock” over SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH)’s decision to appoint Pat Cummins as captain. SRH sacked South African batter Aiden Markram after just one season, despite him leading their sister franchise, SunRisers Eastern Cape (SEC), to back-to-back SA20 league titles. SRH roped in Cummins for a price of INR 20.50 crore, before announcing that Australia’s World Cup-winning captain will lead the franchise in IPL 2024. Ashwin revealed that he didn’t saw the move coming, especially after what Markram achieved with SEC in the SA20 league.
“SunRisers have hit two titles back to back at the SA20. They’ve done it with two extraordinary teams. I was quite shocked, actually. They have made Pat Cummins the captain. I was having a small hunch that they would go with Markram. Markram had an extraordinary season for his franchise in the SA20. The cross-pollination would have been amazing,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
While admitting that Cummins “is a no-brainer” as far as there overseas combination is concerned, Ashwin suggested that the franchise might “have a problem of plenty” in the leadership department.
“Pat Cummins is a no-brainer. But with Cummins as a captain, they will have a problem of plenty in the team with so many stars. Keeping Travis Head as backup, they would go for Markram, Pat Cummins, (Heinrich) Klaasen, and (Wanindu) Hasaranga. Because Hasaranga is a crucial facet for them. If they decide Hasaranga is not needed, in some venues they can play (Fazalhaq) Farooqi or Marco Jansen instead of him. This is what I thought because it makes sense,” he added.
Ahead of IPL 2024, Cummins, who has never captained a team in T20 cricket, said that SRH are looking forward to an “aggressive” start in the upcoming season.
“So, a bit of planning to go and then just wanna get off to a really good start. T20s are hard. Kolkata’s a good team, but I think just wanna see a really aggressive, start to the season,” Cummins said.
Hyderabad will kick off their IPL 2024 voyage against the Kolkata-based franchise on Saturday at the iconic Eden Gardens.
He added that they have an “exciting” young talent in their squad. The 30-year-old added that he is “super excited” to play with young talents.
“I think we’ve got a great mix. We’ve got a couple more experienced guys like Bhuvi. Obviously Aiden Markram captain last year. But we’ve got some exciting young talent. I’m super excited to see guys like Abhishek, Umran Malik, these kind of guys I’ve only seen a little bit of but super excited, so I think fans should be pretty pumped for the season ahead,” he added.
(With ANI Inputs)
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