"I had no idea who Shah Rukh Khan was": Australian skipper Pat Cummins

Shah Rukh Khan, Pat Cummins (Pic: AFP)

Recently, a video of Australian skipper Pat Cummins surfaced all over the internet in which he opened up on his first meeting with one of the global stars and the most established Bollywood actor, Shah Rukh Khan.

Since, Pat Cummins had been a part of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), in a podcast named, "The Anubhav Jain Show" on YouTube, the host asked Pat Cummins about his first encounter with the franchise (KKR's) owner Shah Rukh Khan and how is he as a person.

"This can get me in trouble, but the first time I ever met Shah Rukh Khan, I had no idea who he was. I think I was 18 or 19 years old. I never watched a Bollywood film, obviously heard that Shah Rukh, he was our owner, things like that. I was quite naive, I met him and I was like Oh! this guy seems cool, he's got real aura around him and he had big, big security guards." Taking to X:

"I was seeing more especially the local, young Indian players, just like so shy in the corner like oh my god. I was like oh this guy must be pretty special", added Cummins.

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Further the Australian skipper and former KKR player stated the characteristics of Shah Rukh Khan as a franchise owner.

"He's been great. Last couple of seasons, not being able to get in the bubble, but he hops on Zoom calls all the time with the team. He's really good fun, he's quite, he's very funny, very chilled in terms of leader and owner of the team, you couldn't ask for a better one. Because all he asked from us players was to enjoy ourselves, to play with freedom which is a rare thing. Lots of owners have a pressure on themselves, so for him just try and take away all the pressure, great", concluded Pat Cummins.

In the 2020 edition of the IPL, Abhishek Nair gave a weird haircut to Pat Cummins. Later, during a Zoom call, Shah Rukh Khan was seen asking the Australian, "Who gave you the haircut? Because I saw you on the field and I said what happened to Pat?"

Reflecting on the scenario, Pat Cummins said, "I had an awful haircut. We were not allowed to have a hairdresser inside the bubble. So we had Abhishek Nair, our assistant coach, I think he's wife is a hairdresser or hairstylist. So I think he thought by marriage, he suddenly gonna be a good hairdresser. He was terrible. So I had one session where he butchered it and then I had two or three more sessions trying to fix it."

In IPL, Pat Cummins represented KKR in the 2014-2015 editions. Later, he was back with the franchise for the 2020-2022 editions. In 2024, he was appointed as the captain of the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) where they reached the finals but fell short of claiming their hands on the coveted trophy by losing the final against Shreyas Iyer-led KKR.