Sunrisers Hyderabad announce new captain for IPL 2026 until injured Pat Cummins recovers; Abhishek Sharma named deputy

Sunrisers Hyderabad have announced Ishan Kishan as their skipper until Pat Cummins recovers from a back injury in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise announced on Wednesday that Abhishek Sharma will serve as Kishan's deputy. SRH will begin their campaign against defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru on 28 March before travelling to face Kolkata Knight Riders on 2 April.

The 2016 champions then take on Lucknow Super Giants on 5 April. Cummins, who aggravated his back injury during the Ashes 2025-26, was forced to withdraw from the T20 World Cup 2026. Although the Cricket Australia medical team is closely monitoring Cummins, it is unclear when Cummins will regain match fitness.

“Pat Cummins will miss a few games while recovering from injury. Until he recovers, Ishan Kishan will be the Captain and Abhishek Sharma will be the Vice-Captain,” Sunrisers Hyderabad shared on social media. Although the franchise didn't elaborate on how many matches Cummins will miss, it is certain that the Australian pacer will miss at least the first couple of games.

Why SRH chose Ishan Kishan over Travis Head?

Besides Cummins, Kishan and Travis Head were the two leadership options at Sunrisers Hyderabad. Head has been a long-standing captain of South Australia at the domestic level and has also led Australia for a few matches at the international level.

Head led Australia against Pakistan in the T20I series before the T20 World Cup 2026 following Mitchell Marsh's injury. Under Head, Australia lost all three games. He also captained Australia in the T20 World Cup 2026 in two games - losing to Zimbabwe and winning against Ireland.

On the other hand, Kishan is coming after a brilliant Syed Mustaq Ali T20 (SMAT) trophy and T20 World Cup 2026 campaigns. Having been out of the senior team for more than two years, Kishan returned with a bang after leading Jharkhand to their maiden SMAT title last year.

In fact, he was the leading run-getter in the tournament with 500-plus runs. The 27-year-old continued his form in the T20 World Cup 2026, scoring 317 runs in nine games. As far as Abhishek Sharma is concerned, the Punjab lad had a poor T20 World Cup before lighting up when it mattered with a brilliant half-century against New Zealand in the final.

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