Shikhar Dhawan & Dale Steyn Retained for Sunrisers Hyderabad this IPL 2014

In a country where there are many different religions, there is one unifying factor that unites India, better than any other religion and that is cricket. While hockey may be the national game, cricket grabs the limelight as far as fan following is concerned. Considered to be the fever having many hearts throbbing in towns, villages and metros; there are many effigies of players that are constantly rising to the forefront.

Having made his debut in Delhi in 2004, Shikhar Dhawan, a left-handed batsman and occasional right-arm offbreak bowler is also well-known for his international cricket career. He is well-known for having represented many different domestic teams such as the Delhi cricket team, the IPL franchise; Delhi Daredevils, Mumbai Indians, the cricket franchise based in the city of Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League; Deccan Chargers and Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Dhawan’s stint with both the Hyderabad teams (Deccan Chargers and Sunrisers) has helped give him a moral boost in his career. He is well-known for having played for the Delhi Daredevils in the IPL, where he made 4 half centuries. He has also been considered to be the third highest scorer of the Delhi Daredevils. In the third and fourth season of the IPL, he was traded to the Mumbai Indians in exchange for Ashish Nehra. The fourth season of the IPL had him bought over by the Deccan Chargers for a whopping $300,000.

This IPL 7 the young southpaw, Shikhar Dhawan will be replacing Kumar Sangakkara as Sunrisers Hyderabad’s new captain. This is of no surprise as Dhawan was appointed as captain of the Sunrisers Hyderabad team for the 2013 Champions League T20 campaign. Based on his fine run and good performance, the owners of the team made their decision of retaining this Indian opener, choosing him to lead the team.

Along with him, the West Indies, Twenty20 skipper Darren Sammy has been appointed as the Vice-Captain of the team. Other than him, the team has chosen to retain the South African pace bowler, Dale Steyn. Although they had the choice to retain five players, the team decided only to hold back two. In the 2013 IPL, Hyderabad had finished fourth, after Mumbai Indian, Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals. A South African cricketer, this right-arm, ‘out-and –out’ fast bowler bowls at a speed of 145-150 km/h (which was the fastest that was recorded during the 2010 IPL). An extremely competitive cricketer, this cricketer is often considered a tail-ender while batting.

This IPL 7 will definitely have an interesting array of players for each team.