Why is Nitish Kumar Reddy not playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2026 fixture against KKR?

Nitish Kumar Reddy missed SRH's IPL 2026 match against KKR due to illness. Captain Pat Cummins confirmed his absence was fitness-related, not tactical.

Nitish Kumar Reddy missed Sunrisers Hyderabad’s IPL 2026 match against Kolkata Knight Riders due to illness, forcing SRH into a change for their home fixture in Hyderabad on Sunday.

Nitish Kumar Reddy plays a shot during IPL 2026. (AFP)

SRH captain Pat Cummins confirmed the update at the toss after winning it and opting to bat first. Cummins said Nitish tried to make himself available for the match but could not recover in time.

Nitish Reddy ruled out due to illness

“Nitish misses out due to illness. He tried to get up but he misses out. Smaran comes in for his first game. Also, Harshal Patel in for Harsh Dubey,” Cummins said at the toss.

The update made it clear that Nitish was not dropped on form or left out for tactical reasons. His absence was a fitness-enforced call, with illness keeping him out of the playing XI.

SRH handed Ravichandran Smaran his first game in place of Nitish. Harshal Patel also returned to the side, replacing Harsh Dubey.

Nitish’s absence is important for SRH because he gives the side middle-order insurance and all-round balance. In a team built around aggressive batting through Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan and Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish offers a stabilising Indian option when the high-risk approach does not come off.

Before the match, Nitish had spoken about that exact responsibility. He said SRH’s aggressive brand can sometimes fail, and in those moments, players like him, Klaasen, Salil and Aniket need to step in and put up a strong score.

“For me, it’s about what the team needs from me. Just want to give 100 percent. No individual goals for me to score these many runs and these many wickets. In that situation, whatever the team requires from my side, that’s what I want to do,” Nitish Reddy had said.

That made his late absence sharper for SRH. The team not only lost a batter, but also one of the players who understood the repair role in their batting structure.

SRH still has depth in the XI, with Klaasen, Salil Arora, Aniket Verma and debutant Smaran forming the middle-order block. But Nitish’s illness meant Cummins’ side had to alter its balance just before a key fixture against KKR.

KKR also made changes for the match, bringing in Finn Allen and Manish Pandey. But the biggest SRH news was Nitish’s absence, with the franchise forced to field the game without one of its key Indian all-rounders.