Pat Cummins Or Aiden Markram? Former England Player Predicts SRH Captain In IPL 2024

In a recent interview with the Times of India, former England International All-Rounder Ravi Bopara has picked or rather favored Australia’s 2023 World Cup-winning captain Pat Cummins to lead the Sunrisers Hyderabad next season instead of South Africa’s Aiden Markram.

Under Markram’s Captaincy, the Sunrisers never got going as they won only 4 and shockingly lost 10 league matches. As a result, they finished at the bottom of the points table and missed out on the play-off berths for the 3rd season in a row.

Their performance sparked a lot of controversy with Brian Lara getting replaced by Daniel Vettori as the head coach earlier this year in August. Vettori also serves as the assistant and spin bowling coach of the Australian national team and so has worked very closely with Pat Cummins.

He was definitely one of the primary reasons why the Sunrisers Hyderabad went aggressively after the World Cup-winning captain. SRH won the bidding war for Cummins with their bid of 20.50 Crores making him the most expensive IPL player momentarily before the Kolkata Knight Riders splashed 24.75 Crores on Cummins’ countryman Mitchell Starc.

Other than Pat Cummins, SRH acquired the World Cup 2023 Final Centurion Travis Head for 6.8 Crores, Wanindu Hasaranga for 1.5 Crores, Jaydev Unadkat for 1.60 Crores and local uncapped players Akash Singh and Jhathavedh Subramanyan for 20 Lakhs each.

On paper, Hyderabad has a very strong and evenly balanced side that could challenge for their 2nd IPL title. But the biggest dilemma for them would be to pick the Captain to lead them next season. While some are saying Cummins should be handed over the captaincy, others have expressed that they must stick with Aiden Markram.

“Either A Local Captain Or Pat Cummins”, Ravi Bopara Snubs Markram From Captaincy Conversation

When the former England All-Rounder, Ravi Bopara who himself has played for the Sunrisers Hyderabad was asked about the SRH captaincy matter, he said that he would like to see a Local Indian player leading the side but given the fact that Pat Cummins led Australia to a 6th World Cup title, the 30-year-old will be a good option.

Interestingly, he did not even mention the name of Aiden Markram who is still technically SRH’s captain as no formal announcement has been made regarding leadership changes.

He (Cummins) is an Australian captain and more than that he has guided Australia to the World Cup title recently. I am sure SRH will stick to Cummins to lead the side. However, for me, it is better to stick to a local captain because he understands the side and his team well. But because Cummins is coming after guiding Australia to the World Cup victory, he is also a good option.” – said Bopara.

There is no guarantee whether Markram will retain his captaincy or not and even if he does, the question that will arise is why Kavya Maran and co. splashed 20 Crores on Cummins, for his Captaincy skills or bowling skills?

SRH Full squad for IPL 2024: Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram (c), Marco Jansen, Rahul Tripathi, Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Sanvir Singh, Heinrich Klaasen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Agarwal, T. Natarajan, Anmolpreet Singh, Mayank Markande, Upendra Singh Yadav, Umran Malik, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Shahbaz Ahmed, Travis Head, Wanindu Hasaranga, Pat Cummins, Jaydev Unadkat, Akash Singh, Jhathavedh Subramanyan.