Ishan Kishan is set to captain Sunrisers Hyderabad for few matchesin IPL 2026 as regular skipepr Pat Cummins will be unavailable for the opening games. The spotlight will be on the wicketkeeper-batter, especially after his sensational T20 World Cup 2026 campaign, where India succesfully defended their title.
Ishan Kishan vs RCB
SRH face Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the season opener on Saturday. Kishan has faced RCB in 14 IPL matches, bagging seven wins and seven defeats. In 14 innings, he has registered 478 runs off 290 balls at an average of 36.77 and 164.8 strike rate. He also has three half-centuries against RCB.
Also Read: No ban on IPL 2026 telecast in Bangladesh, confirms minister amid earlier confusion
Daniel Vettori backs Ishan Kishan
Opening up on appointed Kishan as the temporary captain, SRH head coach Daniel Vettori said, "I think Ishan’s been around in the IPL for a long period of time now. He’s been with a number of teams and he’s been highly successful, so, he brings in his own confidence around that."
"The fact that he’s led the U19s and his state team and they won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy this year brings a confident person, a confident player and a really confident leader and those are the attributes that we really looked at when he was appointed. His combination with Abhishek, they’re good friends, they know the team exceptionally well and I really feel like those two will lead from the front this season," he added.
{{/usCountry}}"The fact that he’s led the U19s and his state team and they won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy this year brings a confident person, a confident player and a really confident leader and those are the attributes that we really looked at when he was appointed. His combination with Abhishek, they’re good friends, they know the team exceptionally well and I really feel like those two will lead from the front this season," he added.
{{/usCountry}}Last season, SRH purchased him for ₹11.25 crore. During IPL 2025, he got 354 runs in 14 matches at a strike rate of 152.58, packed with a ton and a half-century.
“I think he started last year where he was added a senior player to the group and the leadership that he exuded throughout that first season, particularly in the back half when he took over the wicketkeeping, it really brought energy to the group and set up our back half of the year and we were pretty successful in that period,” he said.
"So when Pat (Cummins) was unfortunately out of the initial stage of the tournament, we had some decisions to make and his (Kishan’s) experience with his state team in particular had been so impressive and then he was in really good form. So, between Abhishek and himself, we feel like we’ve got a really good leadership group to lead us this year," he added.