Aiden Markram to warm the bench for SRH despite winning SA20 as the captain twice? Sunil Gavaskar reveals scintillating details

Ever since the Sunrisers Hyderabad made the acquisition of Pat Cummins for a whopping INR 20.50 crores, the main question lingering around is who will be their captain for IPL 2024?

No one is backing Aiden Markram to continue and the disbelief on his capabilities has reached such an extent that former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar believes that Markram doesn’t even stand a chance to break into the SRH playing XI due to the presence of Travis Head.

Gavaskar while speaking to Star Sports, made a bold claim that he would be choosing Cricket World Cup final’s man of the match Travis Head to start ahead of Aiden Markram in the Hyderabad playing XI.

Markram is the one who recently led SRH’s sister franchise – Sunrisers Eastern Cape towards a 2nd consecutive SA20 title and Head is the one that snatched the WTC as well as CWC title from India’s reach last year.

The left-hand batter played out centurion knocks in 2 different ICC finals, first in June and then in November. Head scored a brilliant century in the 1st innings at Oval before converting it into 163 and winning the man of the match award as Australia claimed the 2nd finale of the World Test Championship by 209 runs.

Then later on November 19, after coming off from a fracture on one of his hands, Travis Head haunted India and Indian fans at the Narendra Modi stadium with a sensational 137 off 120 balls during Australia’s successful chase of 241 to land their 6th CWC trophy and first since 2015.

It was only normal for him to generate anticipation and major interest in the IPL auction for 2024 after such a knock and it was the Sunrisers Hyderabad who splashed over 6 crores to include him in their team. But now the main question that is arising is where will Head feature in the batting order and Sunil Gavaskar has come up with a suggestion of his own.

The 74-year-old clarified that Heinrich Klaasen, Pat Cummins, and Wanindu Hasaranga will be the clear-cut choices for 3 out of the 4 overseas slots. He stated that deciding the 4th overseas player will be a challenge for SRH as they have to choose from either Aiden Markram or Head.

“Klaasen, with the form that he has shown, definitely comes in, that’s one. Pat Cummins as the captain, comes in at No. 2. I think you would want to look at Hasaranga because he will give you those good middle overs, that’s three. The fourth one is going to be the problem for them.” – Sunil Gavaskar said via Star Sports.

“I Would Go For Travis Head”, Gavaskar Leaves Out Aiden Markram

Sunny G then said that he will be picking Head over SRH’s skipper from last season Aiden Markram and affirmed that Pat Cummins too, will back his fellow countryman over the South African international.

“Markram was their captain the last time around, or do you pick Travis Head? I would go for Head. I think, Pat Cummins, if he is the captain, he also being an Aussie and having seen more of Head, will go for Travis Head.” – Gavaskar concluded.