"Out of the box" - Fans react as Sunrisers Hyderabad appoint Daniel Vettori as head coach

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) have appointed former New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori as their new head coach for the next season of the Indian Premier League, replacing Brian Lara.

The appointment comes months after the Orange Army finished 10th (last) in the IPL 2023 points table, registering just four wins in 14 games.

Sunrisers tweeted:

“Kiwi legend Daniel Vettori joins the #OrangeArmy as Head Coach. Welcome, coach!”

In a separate post, they wrote:

“As our 2-year association with Brian Lara comes to an end, we bid adieu to him. Thank you for the contributions to the Sunrisers. We wish you all the best for your future endeavours.”

Vettori previously served as the head coach of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) from 2014 to 2018 in the IPL. The Bengaluru-based franchise reached the final in 2016 before losing to SRH.

In 2021, he joined the Barbados Royals as the head coach in the Caribbean Premier League. The 44-year-old has also served as Bangladesh's spin bowling coach before joining as an assistant and spin bowling coach of Australia in May last year.

The New Zealand spinner has played 25 games in the IPL, picking up 21 wickets at an economy rate of 6.56. Vettori led RCB to 12 wins in 22 games from 2011-12.

Fans on Twitter came up with mixed reactions to Daniel Vettori’s appointment as the head coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad. One user tweeted:

"Out of the box."

Here are some of the other Twitter reactions:

Interestingly, the Hyderabad-based franchise has failed to reach the playoffs since 2021. They have also changed four head coaches in the last four seasons — Trevor Bayliss (2021), Tom Moody (2022), Brian Lara (2023), and Daniel Vettori (2024).

SRH won their only trophy in 2016 under David Warner. They also finished as the runners-up in 2018, losing to Chennai Super Kings in the final.

Sunrisers Hyderabad squad:

Aiden Markram (captain), Rahul Tripathi, Abhishek Sharma, Harry Brook, Mayank Agarwal, Samarth Vyas, Abdul Samad, Anmolpreet Singh, Vivrant Sharma, Glenn Phillips, Heinrich Klassen, Upendra Yadav, Sanvir Singh, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Umran Malik, Marco Jansen, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kartik Tyagi, Mayank Markande, Mayank Dagar, Adil Rashid and Akeal Hosein.