Former India batsman Aakash Chopra has questioned Sunrisers Hyderabad’s (SRH) long-awaited decision to hand back the captaincy to Pat Cummins.
Cummins hasn’t played a game since dealing with an injury and focusing on managing his workload. Meanwhile, Indian goalkeeper Ishan Kishan has taken over the Orange Army armband.
Under Kishan’s leadership, Sunrisers Hyderabad are currently 4th in the points table with 4 wins in 7 matches.
Cummins had recently hinted on social media that he would return to the Sunrisers side. In addition to returning for Game XII, Cummins will also take over the captaincy as expected. Chopra took to her YouTube channel to question this decision.
“I wish Ishan Kishan had remained captain” – Aakash Chopra
Chopra expressed his hope that Kishan continues as captain. He said there was no need to change something that was working well.
“Hyderabad, Cummins is back. Now there is a big question. Dilshan Madushanka will be out and Cummins will be in. I wish Ishan had remained the captain. Why should he be removed when everything is going well? Let him be the captain, but I don’t see that happening. I feel there will be a change there. Cummins will come and be the captain.”
“I hope SRH doesn’t win the toss” – Chopra
Chopra continued his analysis of the match between SRH and Rajasthan Royals on Saturday night. He said that SRH’s strength lies in batting first, and if they win the toss, they will bowl first and lose.
“I hope he [Cummins] does not win the toss because you will throw if you win the toss, and if you throw, you will lose the match. In my opinion, Hyderabad should always bat first. They have lost all seven shots. Every time they say that they wanted to field first, but they came to bat and have won four games,” he analyzed.
“With a score of 225, you will win eight out of ten matches. You lost one match after scoring 220. That was against Punjab, but apart from that, you win whenever you make a decent total. I think this team is doing brilliantly. On paper, it doesn’t look like a brilliant bowling unit, but they are doing a great job together,” he continued.
Ishan Kishan performance in IPL 2025
The SRH interim captain has done a commendable job in terms of captaincy and batting in IPL 2026.
Ishan Kishan was named temporary captain of SRH after winning the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy title as captain of Jharkhand. So far, he has made 238 runs in 7 matches with a strike rate of 188.89 and two and a half centuries.
Along with captaincy, Ishan Kishan took the goalkeeping gloves for 4 of the 7 matches and handed them over to Salil Arora for the remaining matches.
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SRH next match
Sunrisers Hyderabad will take on third-placed Rajasthan Royals on Saturday, April 25 in Jaipur. This will be the first match at Sawai Man Singh Stadium in IPL 2026.
It remains to be seen how Ishan Kishan becomes just a regular player in this SRH team like he was last year.