Sunrisers Hyderabad’s IPL venture took a big hit in the last three seasons as they neither approached the game with intent nor had the tenacity to qualify for the playoffs. However, let’s not forget how consistent they used to be before as they were a team that perfected the art of making it to the playoffs. They clinched the maiden IPL title under David Warner’s captaincy in the IPL 2016 season by beating Royal Challengers Bangalore in the final.
SRH reached the finals in the 2018 edition but surrendered at the hands of Chennai Super Kings in the final. The last time they qualified for the playoffs was in the 2020 season when they finished third on the table. Since then, they failed to make their presence count as a team. They hit the rock bottom of the IPL 2023 points table. However, they made good signings that fit their bill and will be looking to make an impact this time around.
Akash Chopra lashes out at SRH for handing the captaincy to Pat Cummins
Sunrisers Hyderabad made a surprising move by appointing Pat Cummins as the captain for the IPL 2024 season. Cummins who was roped in by SRH for a whopping INR 20.50 crore replaced Aiden Markram as the SRH captain, a move that surprised the cricket fraternity. Aiden Markram made Sunrisers Eastern Cape champions in the 2023 and 2024 editions of the SA20 tournament. Meanwhile, Aakash Chopra launched a scathing attack on SRH for handing the captaincy to Cummins.
While expressing his views on his YouTube channel, Chopra reckons that Cummins is not the right man to take the team forward. He added that Cummins neither bowls well nor scores runs with the bat. “You have made Pat Cummins the captain but have you seen his recent IPL numbers? Check attentively, he concedes a lot of runs and doesn’t score that many runs with the bat. Only four overseas players play. He neither bowls in the powerplay nor at the death,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
“If he is not going to do all those jobs, you are spending 25% of your overseas resources on a player whose place in the XI was not 100% guaranteed in the IPL. That is why Pat Cummins is not the captain of the team where 11 Australians play, although he has won the World Cup, but not T20,” he added.
“There is a player named Aiden Markram who benefitted the Sunrisers franchise a lot. He made the Sunrisers Eastern Cape the champions for two successive years in the SA20 league. However, he has been removed from the captaincy here. He captained one year in total where I felt there was a lot of confusion,” Chopra concluded.