Who is the new Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain?
The Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH )have announced South Africa’s Aiden Markram as their captain for the IPL 2023 season.
Markram was chosen over Mayank Agarwal and Bhuvneshwar Kumar as SRH’s new skipper, taking the role from Kane Williamson, who was released ahead of the IPL 2023 auction and then was bought by Gujarat Titans in the auction.
Aiden Markram’s appointment as the new SRH skipper was an expected one. The 28-year-old is an established T20 player. A top-order batsman and a handy off-spinner, Markram recently captained Sunrisers Eastern Cape to the inaugural SA20 final victory.
Aiden Markram was phenomenal both as a captain for SEC and as a player, bagging the Man of the Tournament award in the SA20.
Aiden Markram captained South Africa to the U-19 World Cup victory in 2014
The right-hander finished as the 3rd leading scorer in the tournament with 366 runs at an average of 33 and strike rate of 127, in addition to picking 11 wickets while keeping a terrific economy of 6.19. His best of 100 came in the semi-final against Johannesburg Super Kings.
The South African was bought by SRH in the IPL 2022 mega-auction for only INR 2.6 crore and had a bumper season last year, scoring 381 runs at 47 with a strike rate of 139, notching up 3 half-centuries. Markram’s T20 utility has grown since as he’s been bowling more and has become an effective match-up off-spinner against left-handers.
THE. WAIT. IS. OVER. ⏳#OrangeArmy, say hello to our new captain Aiden Markram 🧡#AidenMarkram #SRHCaptain #IPL2023 | @AidzMarkram pic.twitter.com/3kQelkd8CP
— SunRisers Hyderabad (@SunRisers) February 23, 2023
The only other major contender for SRH’s captaincy was Mayank Agarwal, who the franchise bought for INR 8.25 crore in the IPL 2023 auction. However, looking at the horrible state of Punjab Kings and Agarwal’s own form last year while captaining PBKS, SRH perhaps would have felt to let Agarwal focus only on his batting.
Then, Markram leading Sunrisers Eastern Cape to the SA20 triumph sealed his position as SRH’s new captain.
SRH finished 8th last season under Williamson who they released later. They have assembled a strong squad, and will be hoping that Markram leads the side to the playoffs, and possibly to their second IPL title this year.
Sunrisers Hyderabad Squad for IPL 2023:
Abdul Samad, Umran Malik, Washington Sundar, Rahul Tripathi, Abhishek Sharma, Kartik Tyagi, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Aiden Markram, Marco Jansen, Glenn Phillips, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Harry Brook, Mayank Agarwal, Heinrich Klaasen, Adil Rashid, Mayank Markande, Vivrant Sharma, Samarth Vyas, Sanvir Singh, Upendra Singh Yadav, Mayank Dagar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Akeal Hosein, Anmolpreet Singh
