No Place For Aiden Markram & Washington Sundar! SRH's Strongest XI For IPL 2024

Markram might find it tough to find a place in SRH's XI in IPL 2024 (iplt20.com)Markram might find it tough to find a place in SRH's XI in IPL 2024 (iplt20.com)

The 2016 Indian Premier League Champions, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), will start off another season with a newly-tinted team management. They have taken away reigns from their former skipper, Aiden Markram, and given the command to a man who has got the midas touch at the Midas touch at the moment - Pat Cummins. 

The new SRH captain - for whom the Hyderabad franchise broke the bank - will succeed Markram, who bagged two successive SA20 titles for the management. Meanwhile, alongside Cummins, the SRH will have another critical change at the top, with Daniel Vettori as head coach.

Nevertheless, for the forthcoming season of the IPL, the Sunrisers are looking as the team to beat - at least on paper. For a team that finished last a year ago, they would have four foreign men, who the other team would die to trade.


Aiden Markram, Marco Jansen to warm SRH's bench

The South African duo of Aiden Markram and Marco Jansen - who did exceptionally well for SRH in the last two seasons - could be asked to sit out as the Pat Cummins-led side plays their curtain opener versus Kolkata on Saturday.

As Markram might sit out, Cummins would ask his fellow countryman - Travis Head - to open alongside the young and dynamic Abhishek Sharma, followed by Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Tripathi and Heinrich Klaasen in the middle order.

With two part-time spin options in the top order, Shahbaz Ahmed would play instead of Washington Sundar at number 6. Ahmed's partners in tweaker would probably be Sri Lankan T20 captain Wanindu Hasaranga and promising Mayank Markande.

Interestingly, SRH will be one of the few teams this year that have the luxury of playing two wrist-spinners in a game, but the Lankan might miss the first few games due to national commitments.

Cummins' pace-assistants for the season would be the legendary Bhuvneshwar Kumar and death-overs specialist, T Natarajan. 


Sunrisers Hyderabad's Strongest XI For IPL 2024

Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Tripathi, Henrich Klaasen (wk), Shahbaz Ahmed, Wanindu Hasaranga, Pat Cummins (c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Mayank Markande. 

Impact Substitutes: Abdul Samad, Anmolpreet Singh, Umran Malik, Washington Sundar, Jaydev Unadkat.