HYDERABAD – Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), has ensured that Australian seam-bowling all-rounder Jack Edwards will not participate in the entire tournament which is a big blow to their plans of the forthcoming Indian premier league (IPL) 2026 season. He has been injured on the foot and will take a long time before he can completely recover, although the 25-year-old would have made his debut in the league this year.
This is a big blow to the Hyderabad based franchise that had so much expectations of the versatile Australian. SRH purchased Edwards at a heavy price of INR 3 crore in IPL auction that took place in late 2025. Interestingly, no other capped overseas player was signed at that auction which is a testimony that the franchise believed in his potential to inject some balance in the team with his alacrity-hitting and medium-pacing bowling.
As it was reported, the injury happened in the later part of the Australian domestic season. Edwards had made recent appearances in Sheffield Shield in New South Wales and his last appearance was only a few days before the medical examination concluded on the seriousness of the foot problem. Although it is unspecified as to what, exactly, might have caused the injury, such as a stress fracture or a soft tissue tear, the recovery timeline officially has kept him out of the 19th edition of the IPL.
The Edwards loss is also worsened by a wider availability crunch which is already taking hold in the Sunrisers Hyderabad camp. Their regular captain and spear head, Pat Cummins is already confirmed to miss the first stage of the tournament. Cummins has been back in the league recovering a lumbar stress injury, and though he is expected to come back at some point in the league, the absence of strict date of comeback has necessitated the management to reorganize its leadership and bowling strategies.
Without Cummins, the Sunrisers have appointed an Indian wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan as the substitute captain. The team has a high profile acquisition, Kishan, playing the first season in the IPL, with the support of opening batter Abhishek Sharma, who has been chosen as the vice-captain. This change in leadership comes at the opportune moment when the team is about to enter the season with the team opener against the defending champions, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, on March 28 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
The withdrawal of Edwards is also an eye opener to the Australian fast bowlers in the future in terms of upcoming season in 2026. He becomes part of an increasing number of fellow countrymen who are either half or absolutely unfit because of their fitness issues. Nathan Ellis has been sidelined with a hamstring injury to the Chennai Super Kings and old pacers Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood are also likely to miss out the first few weeks of their respective franchises as they cope with workloads and niggles.
Edwards was statistically having a career-best run of form, and he was joining the IPL. In the 2025-26 season of the Big Bash League (BBL) he was a shining star in the Sydney Sixers team, taking 19 wickets in 13 games and providing good lower middle-order runs. His display in the BBL saw him get a maiden T20 International Australian cap in January 2026 against Pakistan. Even though he only played in one game in that series, he was universally considered as an up-and-coming super-star in Australian white-ball set up.
In the case of Sunrisers Hyderabad, Edwards has left a tactical gap. The franchise had imagined him as a flexible solution who would be able to bowl in the middle overs and offer finishing power with the bat- something which is infamously hard to replace with one individual. The SRH management is currently said to be going through the replacement pool, with various foreign names attached to the franchise. Nevertheless, due to the closeness to the beginning of the tournament, it is not an easy task to get a high-quality all-rounder and ensure their match fitness.
There are three prominent names on the injury list at SRH now with reports also indicating that Ishan Malinga might not be able to play the first few games. This places the bowling department largely at the mercy of the domestic core and the other overseas specialists such as Brydon Carse. The scouting department of the franchise should declare a successor to Edwards in the next few days, as soon as the formal paperwork with the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) will be done.
The initial round of the IPL 2026 has already been announced, and SRH will have four games in the period between March 28 and April 11. They will play their inaugural game against RCB and then proceed to take on Kolkata Knight Riders on April 2 and then come back home and play Lucknow Super Giants and Punjab Kings. The team will be wishing that the new-image leadership under Ishan Kishan will sail through this tough opening phase as the team awaits reinforcements and the availability of Pat Cummins.