Former New Zealand pacer Simon Doull feels that Australian all-rounder Pat Cummins’s acquisition for a massive sum implies that he would captain the franchise in IPL 2024. The 30-year-old made history by becoming the first player in IPL history to break the 20 crores mark in the auction.
Pat Cummins will add plenty of experience and solidity to their bowling attack, but the issue remains whether Hyderabad needed a foreign pacer in the first place for their team given that they also have Marco Jansen and Fazalhaq Farooqi and it is widely reported that the World Cup winning skipper would take up the captaincy mantle replacing Aiden Markram.
Speaking on Star Sports, Simon Doull was asked about SunRisers Hyderabad’s purchase of Pat Cummins, The former New Zealand pacer believes that they are looking at him as a potential skipper of the team and believes that SRH will struggle to integrate the Australian all-rounder in the XI.
“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,” Simon Doull said.
The Hyderabad-based franchise has at least six to seven overseas players who might easily play every game, the Sunrisers Hyderabad team management would once again find it tough to get the right combination for the forthcoming season after a poor campaign in 2023.
I Think Sunrisers Hyderabad Have Had An Outstanding Auction – Tom Moody
Tom Moody feels that Sunrisers Hyderabad had a brilliant auction, covering all the bases in the game, and feels that the biggest challenge for the team would be to find the best winning combination for the next season of the cash-rich league
“I think SunRisers have had an outstanding auction. They have covered every single base. The biggest challenge they are going to face is what is their best combination and trying to create a pathway to that best XI but also to communicate that, which is not going to be easy,” Tom Moody said.
The franchise also spent a lot of money on Travis Head paying 6.80 crore for him. Meanwhile, SRH paid 1.5 crore for Sri Lankan spinner Wanindu Hasaranga, which is regarded as the steal buy in the auction. The Hyderabad franchise also paid 1.6 crores for Jaydev Unadkat, 20 lakh for Akash Singh, and 20 lakh for Jhathavedh Subramanyan.
