IPL 2024: Pat Cummins appointed Sunrisers Hyderabad captain

Ahead of this month's Indian Premier League (IPL), Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) have appointed World Cup-winning Australian skipper Pat Cummins as their new captain. The official announcement was made on Monday (March 4).

The 30-year-old fast bowler was bought by SRH for a whopping Rs 20.50 crore in the IPL auction in December last year, making him the second-costliest player in the event's history.

Cummins replaces Markram

Cummins replaced South African Aiden Markram, who led SRH in the IPL 2023 season.

"Our new captain Pat Cummins," SRH said on social media platforms, along with a picture of Cummins.

Cummins has earlier played for Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils, now Delhi Capitals, in the IPL, but this will be his first captaincy stint in the lucrative T20 league. In fact, he has not led a team in top-flight T20 cricket before.

But he has achieved huge success as Australia's captain, leading the team to victory in the World Test Championship and the 2023 ODI World Cup, with both wins in the finals coming against India.

Cummins' IPL record

In the 42 IPL matches, he has played so far, Cummins has taken 45 wickets with 4/34 being his best bowling figures in a match. With the bat, he has scored 379 runs at an average of 18.95 with 66 not out being the highest.

He made his IPL debut in 2014 for KKR but played just one match that season. He had a stint with Delhi Daredevils in 2017 and opted out of the IPL for a few years. He returned to KKR as the costliest player of IPL 2020 auction with a whopping price tag of Rs 15.50 crore.

He was with KKR till 2022 and withdrew from IPL 2023 to focus on international cricket. He entered the auction for the 2024 season, where he became the first player in IPL history to get a bid of Rs 20 crore and above, though his national team-mate Mitchell Starc overtook him with Rs 24.75 crore bid from KKR.

For SRH, Cummins will be their third captain in three seasons. New Zealand's Kane Williamson led SRH to an eighth-place finish in 2022 before he was released.

In the IPL 2023 season, SRH finished last under Markram's captaincy with only four wins in 14 league games. Markram remains in the SRH squad for the upcoming season.

New head coach

Besides the captaincy change, SRH had also named a new head coach ahead of the IPL 2024 season, with former New Zealand left-arm spinner and captain Daniel Vettori taking over from Brian Lara.

Former New Zealand all-rounder James Franklin will take over as SRH bowling coach in place of South African Dale Steyn.

SRH will begin their IPL 2024 campaign against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens on March 23.