Ishan Kishan: Suspense continues on Pat Cummins, Ishan Kishan can captain SRH in IPL 2026

New Delhi. The 19th season of IPL is starting from 28th March. The tournament will begin with a clash between defending champions Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad. All the teams have started preparations for the tournament. However, there is still suspense regarding Sunrayers Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins joining the team. There is also a possibility of Pat Cummins missing the initial matches. Meanwhile, big news has come out that explosive wicketkeeper batsman Ishan Kishan can be seen taking charge of the team. Ishan Kishan played a big role in helping the Indian team win the title of the recently concluded T20 World Cup.

According to a Times of India report, left-handed batsman Ishan Kishan is the frontrunner to captain Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL 2026 season, as it is not yet clear when Pat Cummins will join the team. Sources have revealed that Sunrisers Hyderabad management has discussed this and has considered Ishaan as the best candidate to take over the responsibility of captaincy in the absence of the Australian fast bowler.

What happened to Pat Cummins?
Actually, Cummins has been suffering from a back injury since July 2025. Cummins played one match of the Ashes series in December, but has not played any match since then. He was also not a part of T20 World Cup 2026. Cricket Australia (CA) has not yet given him approval to return to cricket. Although, Abhishek Sharma is also a contender for the captaincy of the team, but the management is looking at Ishan Kishan in this role.

Ishaan has experience of captaincy
Ishan Kishan has not captained the IPL yet, but he can play this role well. Ishaan has a lot of experience of captaincy in T20 format. He took India to the final of the 2016 Under-19 ODI World Cup. Apart from this, Ishaan has commanded Jharkhand in about 80 matches in different formats. Last year, under his captaincy, he made Jharkhand win the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy title for the first time. Along with captaincy in this league, he also batted strongly. On the basis of this performance, he returned to Team India after two years, when he was made a part of the team for the T20 World Cup and New Zealand series. If we look at Ishaan’s captaincy record in T20, he has won 23 out of 29 matches. There has been only defeat in 5 matches, while one match was tied.

How was IPL 2025?
Kishan has established himself as one of the most explosive wicketkeeper batsmen in the IPL. In this biggest cricket league of the world, he has scored 2998 runs in 119 matches at an average of 29.10 and strike rate of 137.64 while playing for three franchises including Sunrisers Hyderabad. During this period he also scored one century and 17 half-centuries. While keeping wickets, Ishaan also has 59 catches and five stumpings in his name. Talking about his performance in the 2025 IPL, he scored 354 runs in 14 matches at a strike rate of 152.58, which included one century and one half-century. This was his first IPL season for SRH. In the mega auction for 2025, the franchise bought him for Rs 11.25 crore, after which he was retained for 2026.