Pat Cummins is an IPL outlier in more ways than one. He is the only overseas captain and fast-bowling captain in IPL 2026. He has led Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to the playoffs for the second time in three years - a feat that is as rare as it is remarkable in the most competitive T20 league in the world.
Across 19 seasons, only five other overseas captains have led their teams to the playoffs multiple times: Adam Gilchrist (Deccan Chargers - 2009 and 2010), Steven Smith (RR - 2015 and RPS - 2017), David Warner (SRH - 2016, 2017 and 2020), Kane Williamson (SRH - 2018 and 2019) and Faf du Plessis (2022 and 2024).
Before taking charge of SRH two years ago, Cummins had never led a team in top-flight T20 cricket. It felt like SRH were taking a gamble at the time, though Cummins had captained Australia to the World Test Championship (WTC) and ODI World Cup titles in 2023. After all, the IPL tends to invite a different kind of pressure and scrutiny, from franchise owners to fans, both on and off the field.
Brendon McCullum let that IPL captaincy pressure affect his batting at Kolkata Knight Riders. Ricky Ponting gave up captaincy at Mumbai Indians midway through 2013 after a horror run with the bat. The IPL pressure has multiplied manifold since, but Cummins has brought calm to this utterly chaotic world.
Under Cummins and Ishan Kishan, who stood in as captain when the former was injured at the start of this season, SRH have revelled in role clarity. Since Cummins has returned to action, SRH have won five out of seven matches to enter the playoffs. They narrowly missed out on a top-two spot, on net run-rate.
While Travishek and Kishan continue to do their thing at the top, Heinrich Klaasen, despite retiring from international cricket, has chalked up 600-plus runs, becoming the first batter from No.4 or lower to do so in a single T20 tournament. Klaasen isn't just about sixes anymore. In this season, he has demonstrated that he can put a higher price on his wicket and be a middle-order shock absorber as well.
With the ball, Cummins himself has led by example and shown no signs of ring rust, though he didn't play a single T20 game between IPL 2025 and 2026. In his first game back, against Rajasthan Royals, he nailed Riyan Parag's off stump with an inch-perfect yorker that tailed in late. He came away with impressive figures of 4-0-27-1 on a flat Jaipur pitch where 228 for 6 met 229 for 5.
Cummins has been more potent in the middle overs (between overs 7 and 15) this season by relentlessly banging the ball into pitch and marrying those lengths with crafty pace variations. So potent that his economy rate of 5.66 during this phase in IPL 2026 is the best (min. 50 balls). He has four wickets to go with the thrift in the middle overs. All of this has set things up nicely for rookies Sakib Hussain and Praful Hinge to close out the innings.
Cummins' style of bowling could also work in the Eliminator in New Chandigarh, where the square boundaries are fairly big.
"A lot of the games he has bowled out by the 17th over, hasn't he? So using himself as the enforcer at the time where you don't allow those middle overs particularly from 12-17 to drift along and allow partnerships to build," former Australia T20 World Cup-winning captain Aaron Finch said of Cummins on ESPNcricinfo's TimeOut show. "It doesn't matter who you have at the back end, when you have got two set batters, you're in for some serious trouble. So I like the fact that he has done that."
In the powerplay, especially against uber-aggressive batters, Cummins has gone against the grain and tried to bluff them with some funky fields. Against Priyansh Arya, for instance, in Hyderabad, Cummins whisked deep third inside the circle to short third and sent mid-on back to long-on. With fine leg already inside the circle, this was a field for the full ball on the stumps, but instead Cummins dug it in short and outside off, which caught Arya by surprise. The Punjab Kings opener ended up mis-hitting a pull to deep square leg - the only man on the boundary in the leg side in the powerplay.
Then, against Chennai Super Kings' Urvil Patel at Chepauk, Cummins installed fielders at short square leg as well as deep square leg in the powerplay. But instead of digging in a short ball, Cummins went for the yorker, which came out as a low full-toss. The plan didn't quite come off in that game, as Urvil managed to jab it to mid-on, but Cummins' creativity against fast-scoring batters has stood out.
During his time at SRH, Cummins has also earned the love of Hyderabad. He has had the crowd at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium singing his name and wishing him Happy Birthday. Instagram reels of Cummins with his son on an escalator at the popular Inorbit mall in Hyderabad have gone viral.
Warner was the last overseas captain to have a similar effect on a home crowd in the IPL. His fandom reached its peak when he inspired SRH to the title in 2016 after taking a circuitous route via the Eliminator.
No other team going through the Eliminator has won the IPL since. But you wouldn't bet against Cummins and his SRH.