It was around this time yesterday when Sunrisers Hyderabad had hinted at announcing their captain for the forthcoming 16th season of the Indian Premier League. The initial announcement was followed by the franchise announcing South Africa batter Aiden Markram as their ninth captain around noon today.
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Markram, 28, pinned down the likes of India batter Mayank Agarwal and India pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar to become the sixth overseas captain at Sunrisers.
Agarwal, who had led Punjab Kings, albeit unsuccessfully, in the last season of the IPL, was bought by SRH for INR 8.25 crore during IPL 2023 auction after PBKS released him last year. Kumar, meanwhile, has played the maximum number of matches (including seven as captain) for Hyderabad since first playing for them in IPL 2014.
Markram, who has led South Africa only five times during the course of his 111-match international career across formats, reaped benefits of guiding Sunrisers Eastern Cape to a title victory in the recently concluded inaugural season of SA20.
Another team owned by the owners of SRH, recency bias must’ve played a mammoth role behind the management handing Markram with a promotion in only his third IPL season (second at Sunrisers).
Markram, who had led South Africa U-19 to a victory during ICC U-19 World Cup 2014 in the UAE, has led in T20s only thrice outside of SA20 2023. Historically, some overseas players have led in their maiden season of the IPL as well. However, Markram will undoubtedly be among the least experienced overseas captains to lead in the biggest T20 competition across the globe.
In 15 T20s as captain, Markram has scored 435 runs at an average of 31.07 and picked 11 wickets at an average of 16.45.
Sunrisers Hyderabad captain 2023 list
| Player | Span | Matches | Won | Lost | Tied | % |
| Kumar Sangakkara | 2013 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 50 |
| Cameron White | 2013 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 62.5 | 62.5 |
| Shikhar Dhawan | 2014 | 10 | 4 | 6 | 40 | 40 |
| Daren Sammy | 2014 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 50 |
| David Warner | 2015-2021 | 67 | 35 | 30 | 2 | 53.73 |
| Kane Williamson | 2018-2022 | 46 | 22 | 23 | 1 | 48.91 |
| Bhuvneshwar Kumar | 2019-2022 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 28.57 |
| Manish Pandey | 2021 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Aiden Markram | 2023-present |
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