Sunrisers Hyderabad officials have roped in legendary Pakistan pacer Waqar Younis as their franchise’s bowling coach for the upcoming Indian Premier League in April-May. The IPL-6 has sprung a lot of surprises already with Australian emerging cricketer George Maxwell getting into the million dollar club surpassing the likes of Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke.
Meanwhile, a greater furor is now being created in the IPL circles as soon as Waqar has been appointed as the new bowling coach. It has to be remembered that Pakistan bowlers who have already bid adieu to the game are now in huge demand ever since Wasim Akram started his stint at Kolkata Knight Riders few years back. However, he passed on the mantle few weeks back citing personal reasons. It was highly tipped that another legendary bowler Mushtaq Ahmed was expected to be the coach of one of the IPL teams but there was no progress made since then.
"One of the greatest fast bowlers of all time, Waqar Younis will be the bowling coach for SunRisers Hyderabad!" the team said in a tweet. Ever since the debacle of Deccan Chargers, there were high expectations on the next franchise that will represent Hyderabad. The Sun Group from Chennai bagged the rare chance of representing the city at the highest level in league form beating The Adanis and PVP Ventures.
As far as the performance of the former Pakistan ace bowler is considered, Younis was bowling coach of Pakistan and national coach till mid-2011. Perhaps, he enjoyed equal status as much as that of Wasim Akram during his peak time. He along with Wasim formed one of the most lethal bowling combinations that world has ever seen.
Interestingly, the former Hyderabad based franchise Deccan Chargers has already won IPL trophy once under the leadership of former Australian legendary wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist. However, there was no progress made of whatsoever after that.
Sunrisers, who took over the Hyderabad franchise from Deccan, have Tom Moody as their head coach and Kris Srikkanth as their team mentor. Interesting developments have been taking place within the franchises every since the auctions have began. Every team has now taken it as a prestige issue to win the current season of IPL for sure in order to increase their net worth. It was KKR under the leadership of disgraced Delhi captain Gautam Gambhir that they have won the last year’s IPL.
Meanwhile, Younis' wards in the Hyderabad team will include South Africa's Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharma, Clint McKay and Sudeep Tyagi. More specifically, it is Steyn who is in deadly form in recent years who can turn the match for Sunrisers singlehandedly whenever required.
Hopefully, the inclusion of Waqar might strengthen the team and lifts the morale up for sure. The 41-year-old picked 373 wickets in 87 Tests. His ODIs tally read 416 in 262 matches. It is barely a month left for the teams to make their preparations. With the fact that all the teams are giving their best to win the title, it would be interesting to see that who emerges as a winner of IPL-6.
