For Sunrisers Hyderabad, a new leader and a new season have arrived. Although Sunrisers Eastern Cape won back-to-back SA20 titles under Aiden Markram’s leadership in the first two seasons of the competition, the management has chosen to turn the reins over to Pat Cummins, their new record signing, in the wake of Sunrisers’ poor performance in the Indian Premier League 2023 (actually, the last three seasons), where they won just four games.
Although Cummins captained Australia to two world championships last year—the World Test Championship and the ODI World Cup—this will be Cummins’ first captaincy in elite T20 cricket.
At the auction, Sunrisers additionally bought Hasaranga for INR 1.5 crore, which they considered to be an excellent price. He bowls spin as one of three all-rounders, the other two being Shahbaz Ahmed and Washington Sundar.
Not to be overlooked is Daniel Vettori, who took Brian Lara’s place as head coach. For the Sunrisers, Vettori is the third head coach in three seasons.
When it comes to international possibilities, Sunrisers Hyderabad have plenty of options. In the batting area, they have Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen, Glenn Phillips, and Markram. On paper, they have excellent all-around alternatives in Cummins, Hasaranga, and Marco Jansen. It is possible to argue that all of them should be in the starting lineup, however fast bowler Fazalhaq Farooqi is probably there as a backup.
They will also be looking for improved performances from their Indian batsmen, who failed to score more than 300 runs in the previous season, including Mayank Agarwal, Abhishek Sharma, and Rahul Tripathi.
Key New Players in SRH : Pat Cummins, Travis Head, Wanindu Hasaranga
Full Squad : Pat Cummins, Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram, Travis Head, Wanindu Hasaranga, 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, Jaydev Unadkat, Akash Singh, Jhathavedh Subramanyan.
Possible XI : Mayank Agarwal, Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen(wk), Washington Sundar, Abdul Samad, Pat Cummins(c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Umran Malik
