India Senior opener Shikhar Dhawan is the top contender for captaining Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2018. He may be back as captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad after David Warner was barred by the BCCI from the 11th edition of Indian Premier League after his plot in controversial ball tampering scandal in the 3rd day of 3rd test match against South Africa.
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With Warner gone, Dhawan being a certainty in the XI and the senior-most player in the set-up is likely to lead the side. Dhawan had earlier led the erstwhile Deccan Chargers and later Sunrisers Hyderabad during earlier seasons.
Also the IPL captains need to have a certain amount of dignity which adds to their brand value. Dhawan is the only candidate apart from Warner in the current Sunrisers set-up, to handle the tough role of captaincy.
The other possible candidate could be Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson, but he might not be a certainty in the playing XI, as he is not known for his power hitting and thus is not considered as a proper T20 batsman.
Manish Pandey is also an option as he had lead his state team Karnataka earlier. He can be utilized as a captaincy product like RCB did with young Kohli in 2012 and handed him the captaincy. They were looking for a future prospect, so they groomed him to be a better leader for future. Same thing can be done with Pandey if SRH management is looking at the future. He may not be a top contender for captaining Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2018, but can be considered as a good option.
Possible replacements
New Zealand’s Luke Ronchi looks a probable candidate after his good show in the Pakistan Super League for the Islamabad franchise. If he manages to get a deal, he will play his maiden IPL season. The former Australian and Kiwi International had a base price of 75 lakhs and went unsold at the IPL auction 2018.
South African batsman Hashim Amla is also an opening option, who went unsold in the auctions. He proved to be a dark horse for Kings XI Punjab in the last season, scoring 420 runs in just 10 matches with an impressive average of 60. He also scored two hundreds and two fifties.
Kiwi opener Martin Guptill can also be considered for his blistering batting at the top and super incredible fielding skills. He went unsold in this years IPL auction, but played for Kings XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians in the past season. The Kiwi opener has played 10 IPL matches and scored 189 runs at an average of 21.
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Sri Lanka’s blasting batsman Kusal Perera can also be considered as an option for his aggressive batting at the start of the innings. He is also an opening option for the team.
