On Monday, November 17, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) confirmed that Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins will stay as their captain for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season. It is going to be the third
straight IPL campaign in which the 32-year-old, who is the Australian Test and ODI captain, will be leading SRH in the coveted franchise T20 league after taking them to the final of the tournament in the 2024 edition before a tough last season.
The confirmation about Pat Cummins becoming the SRH captain for the IPL 2026 season was shared on the team’s official X account with an infographic about it alongside a caption, “P.S. 𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴. Pat Cummins | #PlayWithFire”. Notably, during the IPL 2025, they ended up in sixth place in the standings with six wins and one no-result, accumulating 13 points to their name, three points off the playoff spot.
It was just a couple of days ago when SRH confirmed their player retention for the IPL next season with the auction slated to happen on December 16 in Abu Dhabi. Apart from retaining Pat Cummins, some of the prominent players who stayed in their squad included names like Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Heinrich Klaasen, and Nitish Kumar Reddy apart from releasing the likes of Adam Zampa, Wiaan Mulder, and Rahul Chahar.
Pat Cummins bowls for one hour in nets earlier today to get ready for second Ashes Test in Brisbane
SRH also made the big call to trade out star pacer Mohammed Shami to Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) ahead of the IPL 2026, to free up funds to presumably invest in younger talent at the auction. Moreover, Pat Cummins, who was ruled out of the first Ashes Test against England in Perth later this week, was spotted bowling for an hour in the nets to his Australian teammates, to prepare himself to potentially play in the second Test of the series in Brisbane on December 4.
In the absence of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood due to injury, Australia are likely to hand a Test debut to pacer Brendan Doggett against England in the Ashes at the Perth Stadium.
