Sunrisers Hyderabad’s plans for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) might be jeopardized after captain Pat Cummins is yet to be fit from a back injury that ruled him from the recently-concluded T20 World Cup 2026. Cummins, who has been one of the pillars of Sunrisers Hyderabad in the past two seasons is still recovering from the injury that got aggravated during Australia’s Ashes 2025-26 demolition of England. at home.
Cummins, who led the franchise to the IPL final in 2024, is under close observation of the Cricket Australia medical team over the past few months. Although it is certain that Cummins will miss a first few games in IPL 2026, but is likely to play a major chunk in the tournament. Having said that, it is still unclear on when he will be declared fit to play.
Besides leading the pace attack, the major headache for Sunrisers Hyderabad is the captaincy role. It will be interesting to see whether the 2016 champions appoint a full-time new captain or opt for a stand-in role till Cummins arrives in India.
Who are SRH’s options for captaincy?
Keeping Cummins aside, there are only two options who can lead Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2026 – Travis Head and Ishan Kishan. The big-hitting Australian southpaw remains the long-standing captain of South Australia in at the domestic level and can be an option to lead Sunrisers Hyderabad.
In fact, Head was the captain of the Australian side against Pakistan in the T20I series prior to the T20 World Cup 2026 after Mitchell Marsh was rested due to an injury. Under, Head, Australia lost all three games. With Marsh still unavailable, Head captained Australia in the T20 World Cup 2026 for two games – losing to Zimbabwe and winning against Ireland.
On the other hand, Kishan looks to be the frontrunner as far as Sunrisers Hyderabad captaincy is concerned. Having been out of the national team, Kishan returned with a bang after leading Jharkhand to their maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament last year. In fact, Kishan was also the top run-getter in the tournament with over 500 runs.
According to a TimesofIndia.com Report, the Sunrisers Hyderabad management had a discussion with Kishan in this regard. To add to that, the left-hander was in tremendous form for India in the T20 World Cup 2026, including a fifty in the final against New Zealand.
An explosive wicketkeeper-batter, who can also do without the gloves, Kishan played 119 matches in IPL, amassing 2998 runs so far at an average of 29.10 and a strike rate of 137.64. Kishan’s maiden IPL hundred came last year in Sunrisers Hyderabad colours. So far, he has 17 half-centuries to his credit, along with 288 fours and 134 sixes.
In the 2025 IPL season, the 27-year-old Kishan scored 354 runs in 14 matches at a strike rate of 152.58 in his debut year for Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Sunrisers Hyderabad full squad for IPL 2026
Pat Cummins, Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, R. Smaran, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Kamindu Mendis, Harshal Patel, Brydon Carse, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga, Zeeshan Ansari, Liam Livingstone, Shivam Mavi, Salil Arora, Shivang Kumar, Omkar Tarmale, Krains Fuletra, Praful Hinge, Amit Kumar, Sakib Hussain, Jack Edwards.
