Former New Zealand cricketer James Franklin to join Sunrisers Hyderabad as bowling coach for next Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. According to reports from ESPNCricinfo, the New Zealand great will replace Dale Steyn in the position.
Dale Steyn has reportedly been withdrawn from IPL 2024 due to personal reasons and will return to the franchise next year. The former fast bowler joined the team in 2022 as a bowling coach and played a huge role in training young fast bowlers Umran Malik, Kartik Tyagi and others.
James Franklin, who played for Mumbai Indians in 2011 and 2012, will join the team soon. This will be his first stint in the league as a coach and he would like to succeed. Recent reports suggested that coach Daniel Vettori was looking for a possible candidate in place of Dale Steyn.
And it’s no surprise that Vettori brought in his former New Zealand teammate. The duo have worked together at Middlesex (county cricket) and Birmingham Phoenix (The Hundred). The former New Zealand pacer also served as Durham’s head coach and is currently an assistant coach at Islamabad United in the current PSL.
James Franklin will coach SRH’s experienced bowling lineup. The franchise has players like Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Pat Cummins, Marco Jansen, Umran Malik, T Natarajan, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Jaydev Unadkat and Indian Akash Singh. Wanindu Hasaranga, Washington Sundar and Shahbaz Ahmed are the team’s spinners.
James Franklin will have his work cut out for Sunrisers Hyderabad. The team has struggled to get going the past two seasons. They finished eighth in 2022 and tenth last year. Management is also failing to make consistent runs as Tom Moody was replaced last year by former West Indies captain Brian Lara, who was dropped after just one season.
James Franklin would be aware of this fact and would want to make an impact on the team in the upcoming season. Sunrisers Hyderabad have good players this time and it won’t be a surprise if they end up winning their second league title.
Sunrisers Hyderabad likely to name Pat Cummins as captain for IPL 2024
Apart from hiring James Franklin as bowling coach, there have been few reports suggesting that Sunrisers Hyderabad will appoint Pat Cummins as team captain. The franchise is likely to fire Aiden Markram, who captained the team for two seasons.
Pat Cummins was signed by Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 20.5 crore in the last auction, which took place in Dubai. The fast bowler has had great success as the leader of the Australian team and won the Cricketer of the Year 2023 award due to his leadership prowess.
Pat Cummins won the World Test Championship (WTC) and ICC World Cup 2023 as captain and landing the leadership of Sunrisers Hyderabad was just a matter of time. It remains to be seen how he will fare as a leader in IPL.