Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins has confirmed he is likely to feature only in the latter half of IPL 2026 as he continues his recovery from a back injury.

"I'm still recovering from a back injury, but it's good. I'm back bowling in the nets," Cummins said recently on the Business of Sport podcast. "The IPL is starting soon, I won't make the start of that. But it shouldn't be too long before I'm back out there playing."

The Australia captain added that his return has been carefully planned with a focus on the latter stages.

"I'm back bowling. I'm bowling basically every third day at the moment. We've mapped out a plan to get me right by the middle of the tournament. So hopefully, if nothing goes wrong, I'll play the back half plus the finals."

Cummins has had a stop-start run with injuries over the past few months. He played only a solitary Test during the Ashes after rehabilitating a nagging back issue he picked up during the tour of the Caribbean last July. He was set to play some part in the T20 World Cup but a minor setback in his recovery ruled him out entirely.

Despite his unavailability for the opening games, Cummins has already arrived in Bengaluru ahead of SRH's first fixture on March 28 against defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Ishan Kishan, though, will be standing in for him as SRH captain during the initial phase of the tournament.

"Ishan's had a really successful captaincy stint with his local side in the last year or so," Cummins said. "Those guys, you're leaning on anyway. We've got quite an experienced bowling group of local guys, so a few of the younger guys that come through that I don't know as well.

"Particularly early on in a season, I'm definitely leaning on the local guys who do know them well or even speak the language. Most of the guys speak really great English, but some of them don't, and there are local dialects, so that can be a little bit of a barrier for an international captain."

In some positive news for Sunrisers Hyderabad, Sri Lanka pacer Ehsan Malinga has joined the squad after getting a clearance from Sri Lanka Cricket.