Ishan Kishan did not walk out for the toss for Sunrisers Hyderabad\u2019s IPL 2026 match against Rajasthan Royals on Saturday, with Pat Cummins back in the side and resuming his role as skipper. Before Cummins returned, Kishan had taken the captaincy charge for SRH in seven matches. Cummins had been absent for the opening stretch of IPL 2026, sidelined by a lumbar bone stress injury that kept him out during the first half of the season. Once he made his comeback, Cummins reclaimed the captaincy, while Kishan\u2019s involvement for Saturday\u2019s game was limited to a place in the playing XI rather than the leadership reins.<\/p>\n
At the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, Cummins won the toss and elected to bowl first against Rajasthan Royals in match number 36 of IPL 2026. For SRH, the skipper\u2019s return came with a reshuffle in the XI: Dilshan Madushanka was replaced, and Praful Hinge was brought into the playing group in place of Harsh Dubey.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the toss, Cummins laid out SRH\u2019s thinking for the opening phase. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have a bowl first. The wicket looks good, but we have to see what we need to chase down. (How are you feeling?) Still really fresh. It\u2019s been a little while, but I\u2019ve had really good preparation, a couple of bowls over here. I haven\u2019t played a game for a while, so we\u2019ll see how we go. But the body feels awesome. I\u2019ve come in for Madushanka, and Hinge has come in for Harsh Dubey,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag, meanwhile, reflected on the decision and the team\u2019s broader approach. \u201cWe were looking for the same as well, but having said that, over the last couple of seasons, we haven\u2019t really done well chasing. So I\u2019m happy with defending as well. I think we\u2019ve played most of our cricket here, the majority of our cricket here. We know this wicket really well. We have had our camp right since the season started as well. Seems like a pretty good wicket. Maybe a little bit of dew coming in later on, but it won\u2019t really play that much of a role. I feel the openers have done really well, but they can continue doing well, and hopefully we can pick up our slack. (Combination the same?) No, we\u2019re going for one instead of three-two,\u201d Parag added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ishan Kishan did not walk out for the toss for Sunrisers Hyderabad\u2019s IPL 2026 match against Rajasthan Royals on Saturday, with Pat Cummins back in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_title":"Ishan Kishan Not Captain as Pat Cummins Returns in IPL","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Ishan Kishan missed SRH\u2019s toss as Pat Cummins returned to captaincy in IPL 2026 vs RR\u2014here\u2019s what it means for team strategy and leadership.","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ipl"],"yoast_head":"\n