"Does Pat Cummins take over that franchise?" - Simon Doull on the SunRisers Hyderabad's overseas selection conundrum after Cummins' acquisition

Simon Doull is unsure whether the SunRisers Hyderabad's (SRH) acquisition of Pat Cummins for a massive sum implies he would skipper the franchise in IPL 2024.

SRH bought the Australian Test and ODI skipper for a whopping ₹20.50 crore at the auction in Dubai on Tuesday. They purchased six players in total, with Travis Head and Wanindu Hasaranga being their other two overseas acquisitions.

Reviewing the auction on Star Sports, Doull was asked about the SunRisers Hyderabad's purchase of Cummins, to which he responded:

"Maybe they are looking for a captain. We have joked a little bit about it. Does (Aiden) Markram play every game now? They haven't announced their skipper. Does Pat Cummins take over that franchise? Does he come in and play a lot more instead of a (Marco) Jansen next year for them?"

The former New Zealand seamer feels SRH might struggle to accommodate Cummins in the XI. He elaborated:

"That's going to be the question mark. Now that you have paid all this money, you have got to get him into that team. Where does he start and whose place does he take? They have got a lot of high-quality overseas talent."

Doull claimed the Hyderabad-based franchise has at least six to seven overseas players who could easily play every game but won't be able to due to the IPL rule of allowing only four foreigners in the playing XI. He questioned whether Cummins should take the captaincy off Aiden Markram so that the latter is not forced to play every game.

---

"The biggest challenge they are going to face is what is their best combination" - Tom Moody on the SunRisers Hyderabad

The SunRisers Hyderabad have a plethora of overseas middle-order options. [P/C: iplt20.com]

Tom Moody opined that the SunRisers Hyderabad are spoilt for choice after the auction. He said:

"I think SunRisers have had an outstanding auction. They have covered every single base. The biggest challenge they are going to face is what is their best combination and trying to create a pathway to that best XI but also to communicate that, which is not going to be easy."

The former SRH head coach pointed out that Travis Head will likely open for the franchise. He observed:

"They have got a lot of options there. They have got a lot of match-winners. The one thing we don't know is who is going to captain this side. One thing we do know is that I heard Muttiah Muralitharan during the auction that they were thrilled to get Travis Head because they wanted him as an opener."

Moody added that such a move would imply that one among Abhishek Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, and Rahul Tripathi might not make their playing XI. He explained:

"That tells me one of Abhishek Sharma, Mayank Agarwal and Rahul Tripathi is missing out because you can't obviously have Head up there amongst all those others. It's going to be very interesting to see how they find their best combination, both from an overseas and domestic perspective."

The SunRisers Hyderabad have four quality overseas batters - Head, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen and Glenn Phillips - to choose from, with all of them also bringing multiple skills to the table. They would be able to field only one among Pat Cummins, Marco Jansen and Wanindu Hasaranga, with Fazalhaq Farooqi being another option, if they opt to play three foreign batters.