After a disastrous season in 2023, when they finished bottom of the heap with four wins from 14 league games, Sunrisers Hyderabad rung in a slew of changes. The 2016 IPL champions named Australia’s Pat Cummins as their skipper, Daniel Vettori as their coach and James Franklin as their pace bowling coach.
While Australia’s World Cup winning captain Cummins replaces Aiden Markram as the skipper, Vettori replaces Brian Lara and Franklin comes in for Dale Steyn, who sought a break from IPL duties this season.
The change in captaincy was on the cards ever since the Sunrisers went all out to bag Cummins for £2.05 million at the auction in December last year, when the Australian became the second costliest player in IPL’s history. Cummins had earlier plied his trade with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Delhi Daredevils (DD), now Delhi Capitals. It will be his first stint as captain in the T20 league, however. He became the first player in IPL history to breach the £2 million mark at the auction for the 2024 season, only to see KKR acquire his teammate Mitchell Starc for £2.47 million.
