How Pat Cummins helped Sunrisers Hyderabad create a legacy | Ipl News

The day before the final against Kolkata Knight Riders, Pat Cummins jested: “My trophy-winning luck would end some day.” In the last 10 months, he has lifted the World Test Championship mace, kissed the urn and raised the ODI World Cup crown too.Those words turned out to be eerily prophetic — Cummins finally lost a final — but he did not wear a beaten expression. In both defeat and victory, he remains splendidly dignified, neither celebrating triumphs with arrogance nor mourning losses with bitterness. Somehow, he keeps that genial, almost perfect, smile of his.
He finds a rare sense of perspective in every act of his life. Perhaps, it’s the product of his experiences.
He was just three when his ser accidentally slammed a door on him, and he lost a centimetre of his middle finger, after a splendid Test debut at 18, injuries piled on one after the other, and before he made his comeback after seven years in the wilderness. He had missed 64 Test matches. Those setbacks must have instilled in him a sense of equilibrium.
SRH skipper Pat Cummins being honoured with runner-up cheque during the presentation ceremony after the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 final cricket match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad at MA Chidambaram Stadium, in Chennai. (PTI)
With a Buddha-like calm he watched his colleagues capsize on Sunday night in Chennai. When his turn came, he batted as hard as he always did and gave the total a semblance of respectability. He knew he was espousing a lost cause, but still fought, and still tried.
With the ball, he strove as defiantly as he could to ignite flames of a rare miracle.
It was not to be; but Cummins didn’t bite the apple of defeat with sourness. He knew this was not his night, or their night. His team might not have won the trophy, but it showed the future of T20 batting, the direction the sport would take.

The IPL would have been considerably poorer without the cavalier batting philosophy of theirs. Thrice, his men sped past 250; the two highest team scores ever in the league are in Sunrisers’ name.
This perhaps is his biggest legacy — he has instilled an identity to Sunrisers. A band of firebrands. Yet, Cummins is an iceman. He rarely loses his temper; barely shouts at his men, never picks an argument with an opposition batsman or the umpire. Even team meetings are short and sharp.
“He is not a time-waster and avoids wasting time in conferences. Our team meeting lasted for thirty-five seconds,” assant coach Simon Helmot would say. He details his style of captaincy: “He is an extremely practical individual. He is modest and compassionate towards his coaches and colleagues. He is interested in statics and observes the data he needs under specific circumstances to take on a given opponent.”
SRH skipper Pat Cummins has led his side to the IPL Playoffs for the first time in four years. (Sportzpics)
Roles and tactics are well-defined, yet flexible.
From the start, they had conceived their plan of full-on aggression. It’s not a sustainable plan, but they were willing to take the gamble and the inevitable defeats on the way. One of the most striking elements of this team is how serenely they deal with the certainty of failure.
“We were pretty strong with how we wanted to play — super-aggressive — and in a 14-game season, you’re not going to win every single game but we think if we play that way, you’re going to win most of them. That’s kind of how it played out — there are little bumps that come along the way but that’s okay but you try and make sure it stays on course,” Cummins said on the eve of the final.

Pace is their biggest strength, yet he had the confidence to thrust the scantily experienced part-time spinner Abhishek with four overs in Qualifier 2.
A fierce competitor, he is not hyper-obsessive about results. He takes cricket just seriously enough, is willing to risk defeat in pursuit of victory, and is inventive in the field. His philosophy is simple: “Primarily, I want my teammates to enjoy the game, help them produce their best, without being over conscious of the results.”He is fiercely loyal to his players, and stood his teammates during the Justin Langer saga in Australia.
In such a supportive environment, be it Australia or Sunrisers, players feel secure. It’s little coincidence that several players have revived or blossomed this season. Abhishek Sharma, hitherto floating in the batting order, wondering whether he was a batsman or a bowler, was furnished the license to go berserk at the top; T Natarajan was drilled the confidence to roar back on his return from injuries; Rahul Tripathi was told to bat without thinking of failures. Some of the left-field tactics have worked — like the left-arm spin assault on Rajasthan Royals in Qualifier 2. Cummins ends up being right, because he has led his team in making it work. He wins their trust; he wins the love of the teammates and fans.
It would hurt him that his trophy-winning spree ended, but he would face it with the stoic smile of his. He would be quietly confident that the trophy-winning ways would wink again on him.