Indian Premier League franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad on Monday announced Australian all-rounder Pat Cummins as the captain of the franchise for IPL 2024. Cummins, who was bought at a whopping Rs 20.50 crore at the IPL mini auction by SRH, was touted to become the SRH captain after leading Australia to ODI World Cup glory in 2023. The announcement of the franchise led to a series of reactions from cricket enthusiasts on social media.
Cummins, a fast bowling all-rounder, was subject to an intense bidding war in the IPL 2024 mini auction. Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings went all out for the Aussie captain but he was eventually snapped by SRH for a whopping Rs 20.50 crore.
SRH has two IPL titles to their name till date. They first won IPL 2009 when they were called Deccan Chargers and repeated that feat in IPL 2016. Interestingly, both times, the team was led by an Australian cricketer. Adam Gilchrist led SRH to glory in 2009 and David Warner was the captain of SRH in 2016.
Social media was filled with a number of comments after the announcement was made from SRH’s official handle. Some pointed to the fact that SRH and Aussie captains have an underlying connection. Others focussed on the fact that South African batter Aiden Markram was not given a chance to lead SRH despite being a successful captain in SA20.
Here’s how the social media reacted to the news.