Darren Sammy takes over from Shikhar Dhawan as Sunrisers Hyderabad captain

Darren Sammy

Sunrisers Hyderabad have appointed Darren Sammy as their captain, and he will be taking over the role from Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan for the rest of the season. Having been replaced by Australian all-rounder Moises Henriques in the last 4 matches, Sammy made a surprise comeback to the team as the captain in their match against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad on Sunday.

The West Indian all-rounder was one of the 3 players who were retained by the Sunrisers ahead of the IPL 2014 Auctions. However, he wasn’t able to replicate his last season’s performances this time around, failing to deliver repeatedly, sometimes due to mismanagement and sometimes due to his mistake.

Former Indian player and team mentor VVS Laxman said: “We are hoping for a lot from Shikhar the batsman, and hence we want him to play with a free mindset. We need to win all the games from here to have a chance for making the play-offs, which is our ultimate priority, and Shikhar has to be at his best for it to happen.“

A tweet appeared from the official Twitter account of Sunrisers Hyderabad ahead of the game confirming the move:

Dhawan has gone past the 30-run mark 5 times in his 10 IPL matches this season but has never been able to convert them into big scores. It remains to be seen how relieving him of captaincy responsibilities will work out in his favour.

While Sammy’s replacement – Henriques – didn’t do anything extraordinary to put forward a case for himself, the Windies T20 captain has to make it count on his comeback, for the team to keep their play-off chances alive. He conceded plenty of runs in the UAE-leg of the IPL and didn’t go past the 25-run mark with the bat once before getting dropped.

.@darrensammy88 takes over as captain. This leaves #Dhawan free to concentrate on his batting! :D #OrangeArmy

— SunRisers Hyderabad (@SunRisers) May 18, 2014