During the IPL auction last December, Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins was signed by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for a hefty sum of INR 20.50 Crore, making him one of the costliest purchases in IPL history.
Ahead of the IPL 2024 season, SRH sacked Aiden Markram from the leadership role and announced Cummins as their new captain.
While many cricket experts had expressed reservations over this move, Cummins silenced his critics by leading SRH to the final, where they are slated to face Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Sunday (May 26).
Winning the IPL final will certainly solidify Cummins’ status as the top leader of the current cricketing generation. Notably, he led Australia to the World Test Championship (WTC) and ODI World Cup triumphs last year.
On the eve of the IPL 2024 final at Chepauk, Pat Cummins acknowledged his golden run as a leader but added that all good things eventually come to an end someday.
“It would be great (winning the title) but the run’s going to stop at some point,” Cummins told reporters.
“It’s been a great couple of years, but I hadn't captained any T20 cricket team before this series. So, I was not too sure what to expect. It’s quite fast-paced.”
Reflecting on SRH’s performance this season, Cummins credited the blend of experience and youngsters for success.
“It’s been huge. We have quite an experienced bowling line-up, including (Jaydev) Unadkat and Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar). Also, so many youngsters have come through and have won us games by themselves, like Nitish (Reddy) and Abhishek (Sharma).
“We also have guys who have been away from the Indian setup, but they have been fantastic. So, that’s been the story of our team,” he said.
SRH finished the league stage at the second position this season. While the Cummins-led side lost to KKR in Qualifier 1, they triumphed over Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Qualifier 2 to enter into the final for the first time in six years.
After winning Qualifier 2, SRH’s assistant coach Simon Helmot admitted that Cummins took help of stats before heading into every game.
When asked about the same, the Aussie replied: “All the data analytics are tools to be used. It’s just another factor in the decision-making process. We play a lot of T20 games, but the two games are not exactly the same. It’s different wickets and opposition, and data could take you only so far.”
“So, I think you still need to back your gut feeling and intuition. Data doesn’t tell you that it’s probably going to be successful. We have lots of experience around our squad, like Daniel Vettori. So, you need to balance between the objective data that you gather and what you are feeling out there.”
Pat Cummins is considered as one of those captains who likes to give his players the freedom to express themselves. He said it was important for them to ignore the outside noise.
“There’s so much pressure from obviously the number of fans that are watching, media, journalists, but also from their own teams back home or their own coaches and everything as well. So, you try and strip that all away.
“When they all start, the youngsters always play with a lot of freedom, so you just want to keep encouraging that and giving them the freedom to play however they want.
“And, if it doesn’t work out, you’re kind of there to help them work through that rather than trying to scold them or tell them to change,” he concluded.
(With PTI Inputs)
