Pat Cummins' leadership ignites brilliance? Steve Smith predicts SRH's IPL 2024 fate

Australia batter Steve Smith, who could not land an IPL deal during the mini-auction for IPL 2024, has backed Aussie teammate Pat Cummins to have a terrific season as captain of the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Cummins was made the most expensive player during the auction for 2024 momentarily before Mitchell Starc was introduced in the auction room at the Coca-Cola arena in Dubai.

Pat Cummins was supposed to generate a lot of interest in the auction room as only a month before the auction took place, he led Australia towards their 6th Cricket World Cup title by defeating India in the final.

He did so with an Aussie team that lost their first two games of the WC before winning the grandest prize at the Narendra Modi stadium. 4 months before that he had won the ICC World Test Championship 2023 too, against the same team led by Rohit Sharma.

Steve Smith says Pat Cummins will do a great job

While speaking to PTI in a recent interview, Steve Smith was of the view that Pat Cummins will carry out a great job for the Sunrisers Hyderabad along with Kiwi head coach Daniel Vettori. Smith claimed that the Vettori-Cummins connection from the Australia national team is going to do wonders for SRH who will be aiming to qualify for the play-offs for the first time in a couple of years.

I think he’ll do a great job for Hyderabad while working with Daniel Vettori (SRH head coach). They’ve got a great rapport as they had worked together in Australia when Dan was the assistant coach,” Steve Smith said via PTI.

Steve Smith then went on to state that Pat Cummins’ performance happens to improve especially when he is under captaincy pressure and that he is looking forward to Hyderabad’s performance under his teammate’s leadership. Smith also stated that Cummins is the type of captain who always, somehow, finds a way to make things work.

He gave an example of the Australian team during the CWC 2023 when they lost the first 2 games but went on a lethal winning run right until the final against India.

“And yeah, he seems to play extremely well when he’s got a leadership role as well. So, I am looking forward to seeing how Hyderabad fares this year. At times, we haven’t played our best cricket, but still found a way to win. It’s similar to the ODI World Cup, you keep finding a way to win even if at times it’s not fully functioning, the whole unit,” Smith concluded. 

SRH Full squad for IPL 2024