Sunrisers Leads surrounded after buying Pakistani player Abrar Ahmed, created an uproar on social media

By Samira Vishwas On Mar 13, 2026

New Delhi: A new controversy has come to light after the recent auction of England’s popular cricket league The Hundred. Sunrisers Leeds has included Pakistan’s leg spinner Abrar Ahmed in its team, but after this decision, the franchise is facing sharp reactions on social media. The special thing is that this team is related to an Indian business family and its owner is Kavya Maran.

During the auction, Sunrisers Leeds bought Abrar Ahmed for about 2 lakh 55 thousand US dollars. With this purchase, he became the first Pakistani player to be signed by an Indian franchise in this league. However, after this decision, many users on social media criticized the franchise. Some people saw it as a sports-related decision, while some also expressed their displeasure over it.

Franchisee’s X account suspended

Amidst this controversy, another interesting incident came to light. The official account of Sunrisers Leeds on social media platform X (earlier Twitter) was suspended. When users try to open this account, the message “Account Suspended” appears there. However, it is not yet clear why the account was suspended. Neither from X nor from the franchise any official statement has been issued in this matter.

🚨SUNRISERS LEADS ACCOUNT SUSPENDED.🚨
– The official pic.twitter.com/7b7xw1wVnA
— Sam (@Cricsam01) March 13, 2026

Team management defended the decision

Defending the decision to include Abrar Ahmed in the team, Sunrisers Leeds head coach Daniel Vettori said that the team had made a strategy keeping in mind every available player during the auction. He said that Abrar is a bowler who has many types of balls and many domestic batsmen of England have not played him before. According to Vettori, when his name came up in the auction, the team gave him priority because he fit into the team’s strategy.

Good record in international and T20 cricket

27-year-old Abrar Ahmed is considered an important spin bowler for Pakistan in limited overs cricket. He has played 38 T20 International matches for Pakistan and has taken 52 wickets in his name. Another specialty of his bowling is his economical economy rate. In T20 International cricket, he has given runs at an economy of around 6.67, which is considered very good in this format. If we talk about his overall T20 career, Abrar has taken 109 wickets in 84 matches so far. His mysterious spin and variety make him a difficult bowler for the batsmen.

Less demand for Pakistani players in auction

This time a total of 13 players from Pakistan had given their names in the auction of The Hundred. However, only two of these players found buyers. Apart from Abrar Ahmed, mystery spinner Usman Tariq was also bought. Birmingham Phoenix included him in their team. This franchise has no connection with India. Whereas Pakistan’s fast bowler Shaheen Afridi had withdrawn his name even before the auction.