Pat Cummins to miss early IPL 2026 games, Ishan Kishan to captain SRH, Abhishek Sharma deputy

Australian white-ball captain Pat Cummins is set to miss the first few games of the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season due to a back injury , with India wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan named as stand-in captain for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in his absence.

The Hyderabad-based franchise announced in a post on X that Cummins will miss "a few games" while recovering from a back injury sustained ahead of the 2025-26 Ashes . Cummins played one Ashes game before sitting out the remaining four due to the injury and also did not feature in the T20 World Cup 2026 .

SRH confirmed that Ishan Kishan will captain the side until Cummins returns, with left-handed batter Abhishek Sharma named as his deputy. “ 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 ,” the franchise said in its X post.

Kishan has been in exceptional form, having led Jharkhand to their first Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy title in 2025 , finishing as the tournament’s top scorer with 517 runs . His performances earned him a return to India’s T20 World Cup squad , where he scored 317 runs , ending as the team’s second-highest run-scorer.

SRH signed Kishan ahead of the IPL 2025 season for Rs 14.5 crore , and he made an immediate impact, smashing a 45-ball century on debut against Rajasthan Royals . He concluded the season with 354 runs from 13 innings at an average of 35.40 .

The SRH squad for IPL 2026 combines experienced internationals and domestic talent, including Salil Arora, Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen, Ravichandran Smaran, Aniket Verma, 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, and Zeeshan Ansari.