Sunrisers Hyderabad are without Pat Cummins until the latter stages of IPL 2026, which means Ishan Kishan keeps the captain’s armband for a while yet. Head coach Daniel Vettori reckons that is no bad thing. In fact, he argues the extra responsibility is already sharpening Kishan’s batting and wicketkeeping.
“We’re fortunate enough that Pat has been around the group and he’s been able to have conversations with Ishan about his captaincy style,” Vettori said in Kolkata on the eve of SRH’s meeting with Kolkata Knight Riders. “But Ishan has been highly successful in his captaincy career so far. So whilst it can be slightly different, we don’t look at [no Cummins on the field] as a negative at all [from the point of view of captaincy].”
Key facts first: Cummins remains in India, working behind the scenes with Kishan and the coaching staff, but he cannot take the field until the tournament’s second half. Kishan, fresh from a 27-ball fifty in the opening fixture and a run-scoring spree for India (532 runs off 257 balls since his recall), leads in the interim. His 38-ball 80 last week was the highest score of the game, even if SRH ended up on the wrong side of a 200-plus chase.
“As you saw by Ishan’s performance in the first game, he loves leadership, he loves being out there and I think it can have a real positive effect on his batting and keeping. As he gets to understand the group and the dynamic, he’s going to put his mark on it and I have no doubt that he will be a very effective leader for us.”
Vettori likes what he sees with the bat too. “There’s a very slim room for error [when bowling to Kishan] and his ability to hit both sides of the wicket, hit behind the wicket and then deal with the full ball aggressively means he puts pressure back on that bowler straight away,” he explained. “There’s no style of bowling that he’s ineffective against, so you can’t stifle him with spin. And pace bowling, he deals with exceptionally well.
“So straight away, when he walks out to the crease, he’s got confidence and an understanding of his game that he can take it on. He is prepared to take a bowler on from ball one and that puts a lot of pressure.”
The left-hander’s self-assurance is not new, the coach added. “He has been around for a long time, even though he’s so young, but he has a real confidence in his game and I think that’s born out of the success [with Jharkhand] in the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament, being re-selected for India, and the success with India.”
Looking ahead to Thursday’s clash, both SRH and KKR are seeking their first points despite posting imposing totals first up. KKR’s spin pair of Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine had an off night against Mumbai Indians, yet Vettori warned against reading too much into one game. He knows both can strangle sides if conditions help and if batters retreat into their shells.
Early inspection suggests the Eden Gardens surface, the same strip used for last year’s New Zealand v South Africa T20 World Cup semi-final, has a touch more grass than usual. That ought to encourage seam movement rather than prodigious turn, but Vettori will not bank on it. Teams have been surprised here before—dew, slower balls and the odd cutter can still dictate terms in the back half of an innings.
With Cummins watching from the dug-out, SRH’s quicks must take early wickets to keep Andre Russell quiet, while Kishan will juggle field placings, bowling changes and his own batting duties. It is a heavy workload, yet the new captain seems energised rather than burdened. If that remains the case, SRH may well be in decent shape by the time Cummins finally pulls on the orange jersey again later in the season.
Bumps and learning curves await, as they always do, but for now the franchise appears content. Kishan scores quickly, keeps tidily and, according to his coach, thrives on the extra say-so. A fair few eyes will be on Eden Gardens to see whether the theory holds under lights on Thursday.
