3 min readUpdated: Mar 27, 2026 09:34 PM IST
Sunrisers Hyderabad coach Daniel Vettori lauded Ishan Kishan and said that the team management had little hesitation in appointing the Jharkhand player the captaincy after regular skipper Pat Cummins was set to miss the initial stages of the Indian Premier League (IPL) season.
“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,” Vettori said in the pre-match press meet on Friday.
“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. 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,” Vettori said.
SRH will start their IPL 2026 season against defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Saturday without Cummins and Vettori revealed when the Australian, who has already joined the squad, can play.
“His fitness has been exceptional because he’s been out of the game for an extended period of time, so, he’s had that time to work on that fitness, a real block of work around strength and conditioning. The only challenge for him was the bowling loads. So once he got the all clear from Cricket Australia to build those bowling loads, it’s obviously a bit of a painstaking process to get the lungs up to where he feels confident and strong about bowling. Hopefully, we can get a definitive timeline, probably in the next 10-12 days around when he can return to play,” he said.
