Australian white-ball captain Pat Cummins is set to miss out on the first few matches of IPL 2026 for Sunrisers Hyderabad. There is still no clarity over
when Cummins would join the squad, given the Australian pacer is still recovering from a lumbar stress back injury.
Cummins picked up the serious injury before the 2025-26 Ashes. He was expected to miss the entirety of that series, too, but ended up playing one Test before recusing himself again. According to reports, Pat Cummins is currently recovering from his injury, which has kept him away from competitive cricket.
The injury had earlier forced Cummins to miss out on the ICC Men's T20 World Cup and much of the Ashes. This raised concerns and doubts about his availability for the start of the IPL 2026 as well. Moreover, Cummins has barely played white-ball cricket since 2025 and is unlikely to be drafted into the Playing XI right away by head coach Daniel Vettori.
What Next For SRH?
In the absence of Pat Cummins, Ishan Kishan will likely lead the side till the return of the Australian pacer, as per a report by the Times of India. Kishan could prove to be a sensible choice for the franchise, given that he recently led Jharkhand to their maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Title, scoring 517 runs at a strike rate of 197.33. He also had a good T20 World Cup, coming third in the table, scoring 317 runs in 9 innings.
Although SRH are not underdogs like Jharkhand, he'd need every ounce of his experience to get the best out of the bowling unit, which wasn't being counted among the best, even with Cummins.
Abhishek's name had also been doing the rounds over a captaincy takeover for the start of the season. However, the left-hander has been inconsistent in the recent matches for India. Moreover, he's a bit behind Kishan in terms of captaincy pedigree.
SRH Squad For IPL 2026
Salil Arora, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Ravichandran Smaran, Aniket Verma, Abhishek Sharma, Brydon Carse, Harsh Dubey, Jack Edwards, Liam Livingstone, Kamindu Mendis, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Mavi, Pat Cummins, Amit Kumar, Krains Fuletra, Praful Hinge, Eshan Malinga, Harshal Patel, Sakib Hussain, Shivang Kumar, Onkar Tarmale, Jaydev Unadkat, Zeeshan Ansari.
