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Former India captain and Chief Selector Krishnamachari Srikkanth slammed Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins for his demeanour after his team’s loss to the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL 2026 Eliminator on Wednesday.
Srikkanth criticised Cummins for not being appreciative of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s monstrous knock of 97 runs from just 29 deliveries.
Sooryavanshi knocks out the Sunrisers
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi strolled out to the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur, New Chandigarh, like a man on a mission. The mission included a 19-ball fifty and hitting 8 sixes in the powerplay, including three in a row off Cummins. At the end of the powerplay, Sooryavanshi was batting on 60 runs from 20 balls.
After the field restrictions ended, he added four more sixes and narrowly missed out on a record hundred. SRH made a comeback in the latter half of the innings to keep RR down to 243, as no batter other than Sooryavanshi and Jurel made a real contribution.
Just like their bowling, SRH’s batting was broken in the powerplay. Jofra Archer prised out the three left-handers – Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, and Jofra Archer – within the first six overs, and SRH could only crawl to a 47-run defeat from there.
You have to give him some praise- Kris Srikkanth
After the match, Cummins said, “Yeah, he played pretty well. Yeah, just don’t feel like you have too many options. Obviously, it’s a really good pitch, but the margins are so small. If you miss your yorker by a little bit, he doesn’t tend to miss them. So yeah, fair play,” when asked about Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s knock.
On his YouTube channel, Srikkanth admonished Cummins for not saying a single word in praise of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. Srikkanth said that Cummins needed to appreciate what the 15-year-old had done rather than talk about things like the ‘margin of error’.
“I disliked the fact that Cummins didn’t have a single word of praise for Vaibhav Suryavanshi. Instead, he is saying the margin of error is less, and that’s why he scored. He should have praised a 15-year-old for being this sensational. A 15-year-old has just demolished you and kicked you out of the tournament. You have to give him some praise,” he said.
Further in the interaction, Srikkanth said that SRH needed to make the harsh call of handing the captaincy to Ishan Kishan rather than sticking to Cummins. “They have to make some major calls. SRH came back into the playoff reckoning thanks to Ishan Kishan’s captaincy, not Cummins’. Kishan was the one who set up their bowling with Sakib Hussain and Praful Hinge.”
“They would probably have done better with Kishan as captain. Cummins is also reluctant to use spin,” said Srikkanth. Cummins and Kishan led in 7 matches each in the group stage. Cummins won five while Kishan won four matches.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in IPL 2026
In IPL 2026, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has been a revelation, breaking several records. He still has at least one more match to try and do more astonishing things.
In all, he currently holds the Orange Cap with 680 runs in 15 matches at a strike rate of 53. Sooryavanshi has also scored 4 fifties and a century in IPL 2026. He has also hit 65 sixes across the season, breaking the record for the most sixes in a season.
Also Read: Andre Russell and Chris Gayle left stunned by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s Eliminator carnage
