Sunrisers Hyderabad have promoted Ishan Kishan to the role of stand-in captain ahead of the 2026 season of the Indian Premier League, the franchise announced on Wednesday, March 18. The team confirmed that regular captain Pat Cummins will miss the first few matches of the tournament due to a lower back injury.

While Kishan has been given the captaincy, aggressive opening batsman Abhishek Sharma has been made the vice-captain. Kishan’s promotion comes after a sensational T20 World Cup 2026, where he scored 317 runs at a strike rate of 193. He was a vital presence in the powerplay, even as Abhishek performed poorly for most of the tournament.

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Despite 2026 being Kishan’s second season with the team, the top-order batsman has been handed the leadership role. The decision could be taken from his recent captaincy success with Jharkhand in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, where he led the team to the title last season.

This marks a significant turnaround for Kishan, who had fallen out of favor with the Indian national team at the end of 2022 and was later dropped from the central contract after being out of domestic cricket for a period.

After some time away from the game, Kishan ensured that the break did not hamper his development. The wicketkeeper-batsman developed into a leader to watch, leading Jharkhand to their maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy title in 2025. Kishan scored 517 runs in just 10 matches at a tremendous strike-rate of 197. He was the top scorer of the tournament.

Kishan led from the front in the final against Haryana. Starting the innings, He scored a century in just 49 ballsA brilliant 69-run victory and underlined his value beyond his role behind the stumps.

Kishan’s return to India

After an incredible domestic season, Kishan was brought back into the Indian team. Kishan grabbed the opportunity and was included in India’s playing eleven for the T20 World Cup. After a disappointing start against USA in the first match, Kishan scored two consecutive fifties against Namibia and Pakistan.

His innings against Pakistan was particularly impressive and proved to be the difference between the two sides. Kishan also played a quickfire inning of 54 runs in the T20 World Cup final against New Zealand and led India to the highest score in the history of the tournament final.

What happened to Pat Cummins?

captain of sunrisers hyderabad Pat Cummins has been ruled out of the first few matches of the Indian Premier League Due to a back injury he suffered during the Ashes 2025-26. The issue has been pending for some time, with the Australian fast bowler being out of action for several months since the middle of last year.

Cummins took part in only one match in the Ashes and took six wickets in Australia’s victory over the England cricket team, before being rested for the remainder of the series. He was also ruled out of the T20 World Cup 2026, although SRH say he is expected to be fit in time for the latter stages of the IPL.

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Bangladesh Sports Minister Aminul Haq plans to form a second committee to investigate why Bangladesh could not participate in the T20 World Cup to be held in India and Sri Lanka this year. Haq said a second committee would be formed to look into the call for a boycott and whether withdrawing from the event was a failure of sports diplomacy.

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Bangladesh decides to ignore T20 World Cup They were forced to change the venue to India after Mustafizur Rahman’s unceremonious exit from the IPL. The ICC decided to reject Bangladesh’s request and this forced the BCB to continue its stance of boycotting the tournament. Their place in the tournament was taken by Scotland.

Haq said that the matter will be investigated after Eid and such mistake will not be repeated in future.

“We will try to find out why we did not go to the World Cup. We have to understand why our sports diplomacy was weak. We will form an inquiry committee on this subject after Eid. We have to strengthen our sports diplomacy and ensure that we do not repeat this mistake in future.”

ICC will decide the future of BCB?

On 11 March, the Sports Ministry decided to form an inquiry committee to investigate allegations of irregularities, abuse and manipulation of power during the BCB elections last year. The board reacted strongly to this, saying that the move to form a committee was tantamount to government interference. Haq said that once the committee submits its report within 15 working days, he will discuss the matter with the ICC.

“We are all aware of the direct interference of our previous government in the BCB elections last year,” Haq said. “I have spoken about it on several occasions. Following the allegations from Dhaka clubs and districts, we have formed an inquiry committee. I will read their report, but my next step will be after speaking to the ICC.”

There were strong allegations that former captain Tamim Iqbal and a large group of Dhaka Club officials had planned the elections. Before the elections, allegations were also leveled against BCB President Aminul Islam. A few weeks before the elections, Aminul had written a letter to the Sports Ministry urging the replacement of councilors from select districts. Tamim also claimed that the BCB revised the nomination deadline on two separate occasions.

Haq said investigators would look into the process through which district administrators changed their nominations before the elections.

“The inquiry committee will talk to the BCB election commissioners, the current board chairperson, BCB directors and CEO. It will also contact the district administrators who nominated the BCB councillors,” Haq said. It is alleged that many of these district administrators sent the name of a new councilor after receiving a letter already nominating one. [from Aminul]. I believe that these cases should be investigated impartially.”

Bangladesh recently defeated Pakistan in the three-match ODI series.

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New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) last month removed the A+ category from its players’ retainership system, saying there were not enough candidates to qualify for the gradation. However, TOI understands that the board may be forced to re-look at the evaluation structure of the existing gradation of contracts to ensure that players who have consistently performed well do not lose out on the money they received last year. India’s leading fast bowlers are at the top of this list. Jasprit BumrahWho have consistently received Grade A+ contracts since the start of the 2018–19 season. It is learned that the board has not officially informed about the value of the contracts for this season. As per the previous system, Grade A+ players received Rs 7 crore, while Grade A, B and C players received Rs 5 crore, Rs 3 crore and Rs 1 crore respectively. BCCI did not mention the amount for each category while announcing this year’s retainership. It is learned that the players have also not yet been officially informed about the value of their contracts.

Grade A+ was reserved for players who had made it to all three formats and achieved a world ranking in the top 10 in any one format. since Rohit Sharma And Virat Kohli Also retired from two formats Ravindra Jadeja After his retirement from T20, only Bumrah is left on the board. The clash with the current contract system starts here as despite holding all three formats, Bumrah was kept in Grade A by default this year. Currently, Grade A includes only Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja. The board is trying to figure out how Bumrah can be compensated. It is understandable that it would be unfair to reduce his fee from Rs 7 crore to Rs 5 crore. There are some other players who have gone down a grade despite performing well. There could be revisions in the valuation of contracts,” a BCCI source told TOI. The other name that is being debated is that of India’s T20I vice-captain Axar Patel, who has been an integral part of the T20I and ODI set-up in the 2024-25 season. Akshar has been given a Grade C contract, which was worth Rs 1 crore till last year. India are set to taste one of their most successful years in white-ball cricket in the 2024-25 season, with contracts awarded for the 2024-25 season. Test cricket has seen a decline at home and in Australia, with a five-Test series in England tied in between. TOI has acquired the official norms that were prepared when Grade A+ was introduced in 2018-19. According to the document, for a Grade A contract, a player must fulfill any two of the following four criteria: any two formats, automatic selection in the team, top 15 in the world ranking, automatic selection in the Test team with 40 or more matches. A Grade B contract requires the player to fulfill any two of the following criteria: any two formats, automatic selection in the team, top 20 in the world rankings, automatic selection in the Test team with 60 or more matches. Interestingly, Axar was the world No. 11 all-rounder in T20Is in 2025 and also played a key role in India’s win, which makes him two of the four to qualify for a Grade A or Grade B contract. Even though the BCCI has changed the criteria over the last three years, a minimum Grade B contract seemed viable. It will be interesting to see if the board has revised the criteria for this year also. Apart from Bumrah and Akshar, there are other players like KL RahulMohammad Siraj, hardik pandya And Rishabh Pant has been pushed from Grade A to Grade B. It should be noted that Rahul has been performing consistently in Tests and ODIs, while Siraj and Pant had exceptional Test tours of England. Pandya has also been a key member of India’s ODI and T20 teams. The BCCI has historically considered player injuries and has ensured that players are not penalized for leaving cricket due to injuries.