Ishan Kishan is not leading the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for the eighth game of the 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL) season against Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Saturday (April 25) at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. Kishan marked the first captaincy stint of his IPL career after being handed the captaincy of the Hyderabad-based franchise for the start of the 2026 season.
He impressed in the top job by leading the franchise to four wins in seven games despite losing the toss in all seven games and leading an inexperienced bowling attack.
Why Is Ishan Kishan Not Leading SRH Anymore?
However, Kishan is not the captain anymore, as Pat Cummins returned to action after a long spell on the sidelines from injury. Not only did the Australian ODI and Test skipper return to the playing XI after being given a green light to play by Cricket Australia (CA), he also took the captaincy back from Kishan.
For those unversed, Cummins has been SRH’s full-time captain since the start of the 2024 season, and there was no change made. Kishan led the team only because Cummins was not fit.
Ahead of the start of the season, there was a debate between Kishan and Abhishek Sharma for the top job. However, SRH trusted the wicket-keeper batsman while Abhishek was handed the vice-captaincy despite being with the franchise since 2018.
Cummins has an impressive record as SRH captain, with 15 wins and 14 defeats in 30 matches. In fact, the Australian cricket legend led the franchise to their third final in history in his first season in charge of the team in 2024.
SRH Make 2 Changes
Cummins replaced Sri Lankan pacer Dilshan Madushanka in the playing XI for SRH. Meanwhile, Praful Hinge also returned to the playing XI after missing out on the win against the Delhi Capitals. Harsh Dubey lost his place in the team as SRH opted for an extra pacer.
On the other hand, the Royals have made just one change to their playing XI, with Tushar Deshpande coming into the team. Assuming Ravi Bishnoi will come on as the impact player, it appears that he has taken Shubham Dubey’s place in the line-up.
This is the second meeting of the season between the two teams. SRH were the first team to beat RR this season and ended their four-match winning run. The Hyderabad-based franchise won the fixture by 57 runs at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. Hinge and Sakib Hussain made their IPL debuts in the fixture and took four wickets each.
SRH VS RR Playing XIs
RR playing XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel(w), Riyan Parag(c), Shimron Hetmyer, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Tushar Deshpande, Nandre Burger, Brijesh Sharma.
RR Impact Sub:Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Ravi Bishnoi, Ravi Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Shubham Dubey
SRH Playing XI: Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Salil Arora(w), Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Pat Cummins(c), Shivang Kumar, Sakib Hussain, Praful Hinge, Eshan Malinga.
SRH Impact Sub: Smaran Ravichandran, Liam Livingstone, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Travis Head
