IPL 2023: 5 Players who can replace Kane Williamson as captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad

With Kane Williamson’s shocking exit from Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) ahead of the 16th edition of the Indian Premier League, there’s room for a new captain to take over the 2016 title-winning franchise.

SRH took a lot of bold decisions in the last couple of years which saw some of the stalwarts of the game like David Warner and Rashid Khan leave the team alongside people from the team management including VVS Laxman, Trevor Bayliss and Tom Moody.

Ahead of the 2022 edition, the management appointed cricketing icon Brain Lara as their new Head Coach, Dale Steyn as their designated bowling coach, and Muttiah Muralitharan being the spin-bowling and strategic coach.

The team let 12 of their players leave including their skipper of the 2022 edition Kane Williamson, wicket-keeper batter Nicolas Pooran, Romario Shepherd, Sean Abbott among others ahead of the upcoming auction.

With that, going into the IPL mini-auction, SRH have the heaviest purse among all teams with INR 42.25 crores and are very likely to go after some of the big names. However, first thing first, who’s likely to lead them in the upcoming season? Here are five names who can be potentially appointed as the skipper of SRH for IPL 2023:

5. Abhishek Sharma

The Delhi Capitals' formula of appointing a young Shreyas Iyer as the captain of the team firstly and then appointing Rishabh Pant worked really well for them. Even though the team is yet to clinch its maiden title, it has come close on several occasions. The Hyderabad franchise can walk on the same path in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League.

The 22-year-old Abhishek Sharma was phenomenal for the Hyderabad franchise in the last season. In 14 matches, Sharma scored 426 runs at a strike rate of 133.13. The Punjab-born cricketer was the leading run-scorer for Hyderabad in the last edition and thus, has proved that he belongs to the stage.

Even though he has no prior experience (substantial) of captaining a side, Hyderabad can back him to take up the role. Given his age and form, he remains to be an exciting prospect and SRH might look to invest in the young southpaw.