Why Ashwin is shocked with SRH’s decision to make Cummins as captain

Ace spinner Ravichandran Ashwin said he was “shocked” by SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH)’s decision to replace Aiden Markram with Pat Cummins as the franchise's captain for this season.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ashwin said it was surprising that they sacked Markram after only one season in charge given that he had led their sister-franchise SunRisers Eastern Cape (SEC) to back-to-back titles in the SA20 league. The Indian off spinner said Markram had an extraordinary season with his franchise in the South African league, and he said he was caught unawares by the move to replace him as captain in the IPL.

In the same breath, Ashwin admitted that Pat Cummins's choice is a “no-brainer” and said SRH has a problem of plenty in the leadership department.

“They will have a problem of plenty with so many stars. Keeping Travis Head as backup, they would go for Markram, 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 continued.

SRH grabbed the Australian captain Pat Cummins in the latest auction with a huge price of ₹20.50 crore, and later announced that he would lead the team in the Tata IPL 2024. Interestingly, this will be Cummins’ first experience in captaining a team in T20 cricket.

Ahead of SRH’s first match against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Saturday (March 23) at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, Cummins said his team was looking forward to an “aggressive start” to the season. He said his team had a great mix of experienced players and young talent, and he was super excited to see guys like Abhishek and Umran Malik.