Aakash Chopra questioned Pat Cummins appointment as SRH captain

Sunrisers Hyderabad has recently announced that the World Cup-winning captain of Australia, Pat Cummins, will replace Aiden Markram as captain for the IPL 2024, and it’s apparent why the franchise did so. The franchise purchased Pat Cummins for a whopping Rs 20.50 crores at the IPL auction last year, and now the Aussie will lead the SRH in the upcoming domestic league, but the decision of captaincy change didn’t go well with Aakash Chopra, who questioned the reason behind such a change and highlighted some key areas in the Pat Cummins win resume where the Aussie shines fade as a captain and as a player in the T20 format.

According to cricketer turned expert, the Australian no doubt has led his team to two ICC title wins in 2023, but his statistics speak differently about his game in the 20 over format. Coming to his statistics in the IPL, Aakash Chopra said that in recent years, the right-arm bowler has conceived a lot of runs and wasn’t great with the cricket ball during the powerplay and in death overs, plus he isn’t good with the bat as well. So what will his role be in the IPL 2024 apart from being the captain of the team?

“You have made Pat Cummins the captain but have you seen his recent IPL numbers? Check attentively, he concedes a lot of runs and doesn’t score that many runs with the bat. Only four overseas players play. He neither bowls in the powerplay nor at the death,”
Chopra said

Aakash Chopra is still skeptical about him being in the playing XI, as the bowler couldn’t find his spot in the national team in the T20 format.

“If he is not going to do all those jobs, you are spending 25% of your overseas resources on a player whose place in the XI was not 100% guaranteed in the IPL. That is why Pat Cummins is not the captain of the team where 11 Australians play, although he has won the World Cup, but not T20,”
He added

Read more about SRH’s players in the IPL section of Crpatinews.