SRH appointed Ishan Kishan as stand-in captain over Abhishek Sharma for the IPL 2026 season.
The leadership change was necessitated by a lumbar stress injury to regular skipper Pat Cummins, who is expected to return only in the second half of the tournament.
While Abhishek—a long-serving member of the franchise—was named vice-captain, Yuvraj questioned why the top role was not offered to the left-handed opener.
“I was a bit disappointed. I also love Ishan Kishan. I have seen his growth in Indian cricket as well. Let me give you an example from the player’s perspective: if you switch it, Abhishek Sharma came into the team before the World Cup, his state team won, he scored 100, then he came into the World Cup team, Abhishek Sharma scored runs, India won the World Cup, and then they made Abhishek the captain. In franchise cricket, Ishan Kishan has been playing for one franchise for seven years, performing, giving his heart and soul for the franchise, then he is captaining the state, and then he does not get the captaincy, he gets the vice-captaincy. What frame of mind will he play franchise cricket with, without disappointment? But the good thing is that he said he has a good relationship with Ishan," Yuvraj said in a recent appearance on the Sports Tak Podcast.
Drawing a parallel to his own career, Yuvraj recalled being the vice-captain of the Indian ODI side when MS Dhoni was unexpectedly promoted to captain in 2007.
"For example, when I was in the Indian team, Bhajji was senior, Sehwag was senior, then I was somewhere, I was the vice-captain. This is about 2007. But out of nowhere, MS Dhoni comes and becomes captain, whatever the reasons were. When MS Dhoni was made captain, it was like someone destined to captain and do great things for India. That’s going to happen. But I’m just saying from a player’s perspective, it’s disappointing when someone has done so much for you in so many years," he added.
Yuvraj revealed he spoke to Abhishek about putting the disappointment of the captaincy snub aside and using it as motivation, advising him to "push harder" and channel his energy into better performances for SRH.
"I mean, tomorrow if Hyderabad wins, which I don’t think will happen, I think their bowling is very weak, very weak. I don’t think so. So tomorrow my words may also turn out wrong, and I’m okay to take that criticism. But my point is that you have to, you know, give the captaincy, then only a player learns. I think IPL is a great stage to learn. I think communication is important, but I feel that whoever took the decision, on what basis, I don’t know. I’m just saying if this happened to me, which has happened to me, then I have to be very clear: listen, this happened, I felt disappointed. And I also spoke to Abhishek: now we are going to put this disappointment aside. I’m going to support my captain and try to do even better because something has hurt me. Now I will push harder and do better" - That should be your motivation," he remarked.
Notably, Ishan Kishan was named SRH’s interim captain because of his proven track record. The southpaw recently led Jharkhand to their maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) 2025-26 title, finishing as the tournament's top scorer with 517 runs. He followed it up with a successful 317-run T20 World Cup campaign.