Australian captain Pat Cummins is all set to lead Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL 2024. They bought him for a whopping price of INR 20.50 crores at the most recent auction as well. However, Cummins led Australia to the World Test Championship and 50-over World Cup titles in 2013. But, he doesn’t have much experience in leading T20 sides.
“It’s got its challenges,” Cummins said on the eve of the first clash. “In that you play 14 games in six-seven weeks, plus finals. I’m used to playing a lot of Test cricket, so four overs isn’t as taxing on your body. But it can be mentally taxing, the travel, obviously a different country, play a new team every few days you have to prepare for.”
“But it’s nothing new, we’ve done it before. Obviously, the game day is most important. That’s what we put most days into. No teams play the same XI for all 14 games. I am sure we’ve got to call on our squad and we’re lucky we’ve got a young, fit squad. I think it’s been a part of the IPL, you have expectations, you have a lot of fans who demand a lot out of the team, they want results. Yeah, being captain is probably a little bit more [of responsibility]. But it’s not much different to what we’re used to as players. We’ll give it our best.”
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In the SRH squad, Pat Cummins will have his teammate who was a vital cog in the final of each of those two title wins – Travis Head. But managing the rest of them will need some work as well.
“The biggest difference is that you know your team-mates really well playing for Australia. There’s a lot of things that don’t need to be said, because I have played with Joshie Hazlewood and Starc for 15 years. So there’s a real kind of trust and you just don’t really need to say much, everything kind of runs by itself,” Pat Cummins said. “I think here, learning [about] some new players, that’s going to be the biggest difference, and just learning those different roles within the team. I know a few of the other guys, obviously, and have done a bit of homework to try and get the best out of the guys. But that’s probably going to be the biggest difference.”
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On Saturday, in the KKR camp, there will be Mitchell Starc, who will play his first IPL game in nine years. Starc was signed up by KKR with an IPL record bid of INR 24.75 crores as well. Pat Cummins also added it would be weird to see his fast-bowling partner in the ‘other dugout as well.
“It’s funny… it’s one of the beauties of the IPL; I have been playing with Starcy for 15 years, [and] I can’t remember another game where I have played against him. Also it’s going to be weird looking across and seeing him in the other dugout. Yeah, being an opposition captain, seeing how we go about playing him will be an interesting part of tomorrow. But we’re both bowlers, so I am not sure we’ll cross [paths] too much,” Pat Cummins concluded.
