SunRisers Leeds' X account was suspended on Thursday (March 12), hours after they picked Pakistan spinner Abrar Ahmed during The Hundred auction.

Speculations were rife that Indian-owned Hundred teams - Manchester Super Giants, MI London, Southern Brave, and Sunrisers Leeds - will not pick Pakistani players amid concerns over potential political backlash in India due to ongoing tensions between two nations.

However, the rumours turned out to be false as SunRisers franchise, owned by the Sun Group – an Indian conglomerate led by Kalanithi Maran – went all out to secure Abrar’s services for £190,000 (approximately Rs 2.34 crore).

Kavya Maran, the CEO of the franchise, was present at the auction table along with head coach Daniel Vettori at Piccadilly Lights in London as SunRisers Leeds outbid Trent Rockets to acquire Abrar, who will play under Harry Brook’s captaincy in the 100-ball tournament.

The deal marked the first time in a long while that a team owned by an Indian Premier League franchise has recruited a Pakistani cricketer.

Following this, the SunRisers franchise received immense backlash on social media, with Indian fans calling for a boycott of SRH in the IPL. Now, official X account of Sunrisers Leeds cannot be accessed.

If someone tries to access the account, they're shown the message, "Account suspended. X suspends accounts that violate the X rules."

At the moment, there is no explanation given by X as to why the account has been suspended.

For the unversed, Abrar Ahmed has previously hogged headlines for certain social media posts that appeared to be mocking the Indian armed forces. The posts surfaced during a period of heightened tensions between India and Pakistan last year.

Given this backdrop, his signing by an Indian-owned franchise has not gone down well with fans on social media.