Former India cricketer Yuvraj Singh, mentor to Abhishek Sharma, said it was disappointing for every player who had given his “heart and soul” to the franchise “for years” to miss out on leading the side. SRH announced Ishan Kishan as the replacement captain for IPL 2026, ditching Abhishek, and the decision did not go down well with a section of fans and even some cricket pundits. One of the biggest talking points ahead of the start of IPL 2026 was the selection of the Sunrisers Hyderabad captain in the absence of regular skipper Pat Cummins. SRH announced Ishan Kishan as the alternate captain thereby offending Abhishek Sharma and the decision did not go down well with a section of fans and even cricket pundits. Now former India cricketer Yuvraj Singh, Abhishek’s mentor, said it was disappointing for every player who had given his ‘heart and soul’ to the franchise for years to miss out on leading the side. “It’s disappointing. I love Ishan Kishan. I’ve seen his growth in Indian cricket as well, his comeback too,” Yuvraj Singh said on the SportsTak Podcast. “If I give you an example, switch it from a player’s point of view – let’s say if Abhishek Sharma came into the team before the World Cup, his national team won, scored a hundred in the final, came into the World Cup team, scored a goal and captained the franchise.
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Nitish Kumar Reddy breaks down SRH’s master plan | post-match pc “On the other hand, Ishan Kishan, who has played for one franchise for seven years, has performed, given his heart and soul for the franchise and is also the captain of the state side, but he won’t get the captaincy; he will get the vice-captaincy. What’s the mood of franchise cricket now – with a bit of disappointment.” However, Yuvraj Singh felt that this knock is something that Abhishek should take as motivation and strive to do even better than what he is doing at present. “If it happened with me, I have to be clear, ‘look, it happened, I’m disappointed’. I also spoke to Abhishek and told him we’ll put the disappointment aside and support my captain and try to do better because I was hurting, ab aur zor lagaunga, do better. That should be your motivation,” Yuvraj said. Although SRH has not officially announced the reason for selecting Kishan over Abhishek, it is widely felt that Ishan, who returned to the Indian team after two years and has had a stellar World Cup campaign scoring 317 runs, led his state team Jharkhand to the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy – India’s premier domestic T20 tournament and was an ideal pick for his 51st century in the tournament. stop-gap arrangement. Yuvraj further explained the selection of Kishan as captain by SRH and looked back on his Indian career and the time when MS Dhoni became India’s captain in 2007 despite the presence of senior players. “For example, when I was in the Indian team, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag were seniors, I was the vice-captain, but MS Dhoni comes out of nowhere and becomes the captain. Whatever the reasons are…franchise cricket does not decide whether you will captain India.
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Do you think Ishan Kishan is ready for the role of captain in IPL?
You look at Shubman Gill; because everyone felt that he is very hardworking, most honest about the game, thinks about cricket in a different way and the selectors felt that this guy should be the captain of India. Perhaps in the same way, Dhoni was appointed captain. And if someone is destined to become captain, to do great things for India, it will happen,” said Yuvraj. Cummins, who led SRH in 2024 and 2025, is recovering from a back injury and despite joining the SRH squad, is still not available for selection. The injury has ruled him out of the T20 World Cup 2026. However, the Australian gave his approval for Ishan’s promotion, stating, “Ishan has had a really successful captaincy with his local side over the last year…”.
