Former New Zealand pacer James Franklin is set to replace ex-South Africa speedster Dale Steyn as a bowling coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad for the upcoming season of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, slated to take place in
Steyn decided to take a break and pulled out of the coaching duties for Sunrisers Hyderabad from the upcoming IPL season. As per the report by Cricbuzz, the 42-year-old requested SRH for a break and is expected to return to IPL 2024, pending all the necessary arrangements.
With the Dale Steyn pulling out of IPL 2024 due to personal reasons, Sunrisers Hyderabad have been in the quest to find new fast bowling coach. However, it has been reported that James Frankin will take up the duties of fast bowling coach for the 2016 IPL champions.
At Sunrisers Hyderabad James Franklin will work closely with newly appointed head coach and former New Zealand teammate Daniel Vettori. The 43-year-old has a prior experience in coaching as he was the head coach of English County Club Durham and is currently serving as the fast bowling coach of Islamabad United in Pakistan Super League (PSL) since 2023.
Franklin will also get to work with some of the best in the pace bowling ranks at Sunrisers Hyderabad, including the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Umran Malik, Jaydev Unadkat and Fazal Farooqi. The SRH also have spinners lot of Wanindu Hasaranga, Washington Sundar and Shahbaz Ahmed.
James Franklin played for Mumbai Indians in IPL
This will not be the first time that James Franklin to become part of Indian Premier League. The 43-year-old played for Mumbai Indians in cash-rich franchise T20 league in 2011 and 2012.
Mumbai-based franchise acquired the services of Franklin for INR 46 lakhs at IPL 2011 Auction. In his debut season, James Franklin didn't have an ideal outing as he could pick only 3 wickets in 8 matches. In the following season, former Kiwi pacer picked six wickets in 12 matches.
After IPL 2012 season, Franklin was released from Mumbai Indians squad. Since then, he was not part of the Indian Premier League. Apart from IPL, he was part of Bangladesh Premier League (Rajshahi Kings), Big Bash League (Adelaide Strikers), and Caribbean Premier League (Guyana Amazon Warriors and Barbodas Tridents).
In IPL, James Franklin picked 9 wickets at an average of 24.44 and with an economy rate of 8.74 in 20 matches.
