{"id":45048,"date":"2026-03-16T20:11:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T14:41:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=45048"},"modified":"2026-03-16T20:11:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T14:41:39","slug":"ipl-2026-ishan-kishan-vs-abhishek-sharma-who-should-lead-srh-if-pat-cummins-misses-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/cricket\/ipl\/ipl-2026-ishan-kishan-vs-abhishek-sharma-who-should-lead-srh-if-pat-cummins-misses-start\/","title":{"rendered":"IPL 2026: Ishan Kishan vs Abhishek Sharma: Who Should Lead SRH if Pat Cummins Misses Start?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the <\/span><b>Indian Premier League 2026<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> season approaches, discussions around team combinations and leadership decisions are gaining momentum. One of the biggest talking points ahead of the new campaign is the availability of <\/span><b>Pat Cummins<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the captain of <\/span><b>Sunrisers Hyderabad<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, for the opening matches of the tournament.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is growing uncertainty over whether the Australian fast bowler will recover in time for the start of the competition. Cummins is currently undergoing rehabilitation for a back injury, the same issue that forced him to miss the <\/span><b>ICC Men\u2019s T20 World Cup 2026<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. If the injury keeps him out of the early phase of the IPL, Sunrisers Hyderabad may be forced to appoint a temporary captain until their regular skipper returns.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Cummins\u2019 possible absence, <\/span><b>Abhishek Sharma<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> has emerged as a strong contender for the leadership role. The 25-year-old has become one of the franchise\u2019s most important players in recent seasons. He was retained by the team for \u20b914 crore and delivered an impressive campaign in IPL 2024, scoring 484 runs with aggressive intent at the top of the order.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Abhishek also recently grabbed headlines during the final of the <\/span><b>ICC Men\u2019s T20 World Cup 2026<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, where he produced a sensational innings against the New<\/span><b> Zealand team<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Opening the batting for the <\/span><b>India team<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, He smashed <\/span><b>52 off 21 balls<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, including six fours and three sixes, bringing up an <\/span><b>18-ball half-century<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that powered India to <\/span><b>255\/5<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and a <\/span><b>96-run win<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in the final.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, the debate around Sunrisers Hyderabad\u2019s captaincy is far from settled. Some fans believe the responsibility should go to wicketkeeper-batter <\/span><b>Ishan Kishan<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, who has prior leadership experience in domestic cricket. Kishan recently captained the <\/span><b>Jharkhand team<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to the title in the <\/span><b>Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2026<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a triumph that also contributed to his return to India\u2019s T20 setup and his inclusion in the World Cup squad.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">With the IPL season scheduled to begin on March 28 in <\/span><b>Bengaluru<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, speculation surrounding Sunrisers Hyderabad\u2019s leadership continues to grow. Fans are eagerly waiting for clarity on Cummins\u2019 fitness and the franchise\u2019s decision on who will lead the side if the Australian skipper is unavailable for the opening matches. The official announcement from the team management is expected soon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the Indian Premier League 2026 season approaches, discussions around team combinations and leadership decisions are gaining momentum. One of\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":473,"featured_media":45049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[673,3801,626,607,692],"class_list":["post-45048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ipl","tag-abhishek-sharma","tag-ipl","tag-ishan-kishan","tag-pat-cummins","tag-srh"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/473"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45048"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45051,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45048\/revisions\/45051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}