Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar will lead Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 campaign opener on April 2. The 33-year-old will don the captaincy hat as their new skipper Aiden Markram is a part of South Africa's two-match ODI series against Netherlands which is crucial for their direct qualification in ODI World Cup 2023 which will be hosted in India.
SRH will take on Sanju Samson-led Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Hyderabad on April 2. Markram will arrive in India on April 3. He will lead SRH in their first away match at Ekana Cricket Stadium against KL Rahul's Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 7.
This will not be the first time Bhuvneshwar will be leading a side in IPL. He made his IPL captaincy debut in 2019. So far, he has captained in seven games out of which SRH have lost five.
Bhuvneshwar joined SRH in 2014. He has played 115 matches and picked up 130 wickets at an average of 25.01 including one fifer. He is their go-to death bowler as well. He has an impressive economy rate of 7.44 runs per over.
Along with Markram, wicketkeeper-batter Heinrich Klaasen will miss the first game as well. In his absence, New Zealand’s Glenn Phillips may play as the designated wicketkeeper.
England’s hard-hitter Harry Brook who was picked for a whopping Rs 13.25 crore will make his debut against the finalists of previous season.
Under the captaincy of Kane Williamson, SRH never looked like they were in title race. They finished eighth on the points table with six wins from 14 games and a negative net run rate (NRR).
SRH full squad for IPL 2023: Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Glenn Phillips, Kartik Tyagi, Marco Jansen, Rahul Tripathi, T. Natarajan, Umran Malik, Washington Sundar, Anmolpreet Singh, Akeal Hosein, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mayank Dagar, Upendra Yadav, Sanvir Singh, Samarth Vyas, Vivrant Sharma, Mayank Markande, Adil Rashid, Heinrich Klaasen, Mayank Agarwal, Harry Brook
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