Ishan Kishan fit enough as T20 captain? Here's what numbers say before IPL 2026

IPL 2026: Ishan Kishan has been named Sunrisers Hyderabad's stand-in captain in the absence of Pat Cummins. The left-hander heads into the IPL on the back of a sensational T20 World Cup 2026 campaign.

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) have turned to Ishan Kishan to lead the side in the absence of regular captain Pat Cummins, who is set to miss the first few matches of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026. Abhishek Sharma will act as his deputy.

The decision comes on the back of Kishan’s sensational T20 World Cup 2026 campaign at home, where he piled up 317 runs in nine matches at an average of 35.22 and a blistering strike rate of 193.29, with three fifties to show for his efforts.

But while his credentials as a batter are beyond question right now, his lack of IPL captaincy experience remains a talking point. That inevitably leads to the bigger question: have SRH made the right call, and is Kishan ready to shoulder the responsibility of leading the 2016 champions?

Kishan has captained sides in 29 T20 matches since 2019, winning 24 and losing only five. In the most recent edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he led Jharkhand to the title, with the team winning 10 of their 11 matches.

They won all seven of their games in Elite Group D before defeating Punjab and Madhya Pradesh in Super League Group A. Jharkhand’s nine-match winning streak ended when Andhra beat them by nine runs at the DY Patil Academy in Ambi, Pune.

However, they bounced back in style by defeating Haryana by 69 runs in the final at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune. All of it points to one conclusion: Kishan has already shown he has the credentials to be an effective T20 captain.