"What is SRH thinking?" - Irfan Pathan questions Pat Cummins' appointment as captain in IPL

Former India National Cricket Team all-rounder Irfan Pathan has questioned the appointment of Pat Cummins as the captain of the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) ahead of the 2024 season.

Cummins had a stellar year 2023 as the skipper of Australia as he won both the ICC World Test Championship and ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup. He also did a great job in the Ashes 2023 and made sure that his team the Ashes urn.

Cummins, who won the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year 2023, was roped in by the one-time champions Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 auction in Dubai. The franchise spend a whopping 20.50 crore to acquire his services.

Since his acquisition, there were rumors of him getting appointed as the skipper of the franchise, and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Monday, March 4, announced that Cummins will be taking over the reins from Aiden Markram, who did a poor job as skipper last season.

Talking about Pat Cummins taking over the SRH leadership, Irfan Pathan said that Cummins has been a great captain but there is still a big question mark over his performance in T20 cricket.

“When you talk about leadership, you wouldn’t want to think beyond Cummins ideally. Australia just won the World Cup under him; he’s performed really well in the last one and a half years. But the problem is that Cummins will look nice overall. However, when it comes to T20 leadership, there’s nothing. His performance isn’t the greatest in T20 cricket and his IPL numbers aren’t decent either,” Pathan said on Star Sports.

Notably, Aiden Markram has failed as skipper in the Indian Premier League (IPL) but has been highly successful in SA20, guiding the Sunrisers Eastern Cape to back-to-back titles.

Forget leadership, how will Pat Cummins perform as a bowler? – Irfan Pathan

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) management will have a big headache when they sit to finalize four overseas players in the playing XI as they have got the likes of – Travis Head, Wanindu Hasaranga, Pat Cummins, Heinrich Klaasen, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Glenn Phillips, Aiden Markram and Marco Jansen.

Irfan Pathan raised the same point and stated that the likes of Wanindu Hasaranga and Marco Jansen might find it difficult to make their way into the playing XI because of the presence of too many good overseas players in the squad.

“So there will be a challenge. What is SRH thinking? They’ve made a big move here. If Cummins is made captain, what about Markram? You gave him captaincy just for one year, so wouldn’t you want to back him? That is a big question.”

“If they both play, [Wanindu] Hasaranga will struggle to make his place in the team. Even Marco Jansen could sit out because there are too many overseas players. So there are a lot of issues. SRH need to figure out what they have to do because even Klaasen is an overseas player. And I want personally that Hasaranga becomes part of that Playing XI. Forget leadership, how will Cummins perform as a bowler? That remains to be seen,” he added.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 will begin on March 22 and the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will be seen in action on Match 23 when they take on Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.