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Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain Pat Cummins is set to join the camp on March 24, days ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 opener. While Cummins will join the camp, he won't be attending the captains' meet on March 25 in Mumbai.
As per a report by Cricbuzz, Cummins will join the squad in Bengaluru but it will be Ishan Kishan who will attend the captains' meet. Earlier this week, Kishan was named stand-in captain with Abhishek Sharma as his deputy.
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Kishan will be in Mumbai alongside nine other captains for a long engagement with the IPL and broadcasters.
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There is a question mark on when will Cummins regain match fitness. Cricket Australia has managed his workload after a lumbar stress issue back ruled him out of action for months. He returned for the Ashes but played just one game before getting ruled out again. He did not play in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 either where Australia faced an early exit from the group stage.
Kishan's IPL captaincy debut
Kishan has been named interim captain for the first few games. He will lead the side for the campaign opener against defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, on March 28. It will mark the southpaw's IPL captaincy debut. Cummins is likely to sit on the sidelines as he is still recuperating from the injury.
As per the initial schedule, SRH will face Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) next on April 2 in another away game. Then, they will play their first home game of the season against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 5. Six days later, they will take on the finalists of previous edition, Punjab Kings (PBKS).
Kishan in red-hot form
Kishan has had a meteoric rise in the last few months. He led Jharkhand to their maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) title win. The wicketkeeper-batter scored most runs in the SMAT season and got a place in India's T20 World Cup 2026 squad. He went on to score 317 runs from nine innings at an average of 35.22 and strike rate of 193.29. He scored three half-centuries in the season.
Where did SRH finish in IPL 2025?
In the previous edition, Cummins-led SRH finished sixth on the points table with six wins from 14 games. They missed making it to the playoffs after playing the final in the 2024 edition where they lost to KKR.
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