Sunrisers Hyderabad have turned to Ishan Kishan while they wait for Pat Cummins to shake off a troublesome back. The Australian quick is still nursing a lumbar stress injury, so Kishan will lead SRH for at least the first few matches of IPL 2026, with Abhishek Sharma named vice-captain. Cummins is expected in Hyderabad on 23 March, but there is no firm date for when he will be fit to play.
The tournament opens on 28 March, when the defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru host SRH at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. If Cummins misses that game, it will be only the second IPL season in which every side begins with an Indian captain – the first was 2019.
Kishan, 27, joined Hyderabad for INR 11.25 crore ahead of the 2025 auction and enjoyed a lively first year: 354 runs at a strike-rate a shade above 152, including an unbeaten ton on debut and a 94* that helped the side squeeze into the play-offs. His form since has been even stronger. He topped the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy run-charts while leading Jharkhand to the title, then piled up 532 runs in 13 T20Is for India at 40.92 and a blistering strike-rate of 207. Three half-centuries came at last winter’s T20 World Cup, one in the final against New Zealand, where Abhishek also chipped in with a timely fifty.
Neither Kishan nor Abhishek has captained an IPL team before, yet the franchise feels the pair understand each other’s rhythms. The left-hander’s energy behind the stumps, and the all-rounder’s calm in the field, should offer a useful balance until Cummins is back in harness.
Cummins’ own schedule is less certain. The 32-year-old managed only one match during Australia’s home summer – the third Ashes Test in Adelaide, where he still found enough fuel to take six wickets – before medical staff recommended rest. A lumbar stress injury is essentially a small fracture in the lower back; fast bowlers are prone to it, and recovery tends to be gradual rather than dramatic.
SRH sources say Cricket Australia have given the fast bowler permission to travel as soon as he clears a final fitness assessment, but nobody wants to rush things. “There’s no point asking Pat to sprint before he can jog,” a team insider admitted on Monday. Privately, coaches are planning for life without him for at least the opening fortnight.
The short-term switch means Hyderabad’s leadership group now mirrors much of India’s recent white-ball set-up, a dynamic head coach Daniel Vettori believes could help simplify tactics. Batting-heavy pitches at the start of an IPL normally reward positive intent, and Kishan has rarely been accused of timidity. How he copes with juggling the gloves, the top order and the captaincy’s extra chatter will be worth watching.
For now, though, the equation is straightforward: Cummins recovers, Kishan steers the ship, and Sunrisers – semi-finalists three times in the last six seasons – bid to stay afloat until their marquee signing can take the new ball again. It is hardly ideal, but few IPL campaigns ever begin under perfect skies.
