‘We’ll try to be more aggressive’: Pat Cummins ahead of SRH’s Eliminator clash vs RR

Sunrisers Hyderabad are set for a high-stakes clash against Rajasthan Royals in the IPL 2026 eliminator at the New International Cricket Stadium in New Chandigarh on Wednesday.

Amid the buzz surrounding the knockout encounter, SRH skipper Pat Cummins opened up on his mindset heading into the playoffs, stressing the importance of playing fearless and aggressive cricket under pressure.

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Cummins said his approach in crucial matches is to avoid regrets and continue backing the style of cricket that helped Hyderabad reach the playoffs.

“I think you want to keep a lot of things similar to what got you into the finals. But there’s also a bit more pressure, a few more nerves, so you want to acknowledge that,” Cummins told JioStar.

“I always like to think, ‘How are you going to look back on that game with no regrets?’ So, that’s always kind of my mentality going into a final.”

The Australian captain further stated that SRH would look to be even more attacking rather than becoming conservative in knockout games.

“Instead of being more conservative, try and be even more aggressive. We’ve got to win three in a row to win it. We’ve won more than that throughout the season. We won five in a row at one stage, so it’s possible,” he said.

Interestingly, Sunrisers Hyderabad remain the only team in IPL history to win the title after coming through the Eliminator route, having achieved the feat during their championship-winning 2016 campaign.

Despite SRH completing a league double over Rajasthan Royals this season, Cummins insisted that previous results would not guarantee success in the playoffs.

“You’re obviously starting from scratch again, but you do take learnings from previous games. We’ve played them twice and had a good look at a lot of their players. A lot of our guys can look back at those games where they’ve had success and lean on that heading into the finals,” he explained.

Cummins also addressed the challenge posed by Rajasthan Royals batter Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who has been in sensational form this season with 583 runs in 14 matches at an average of 41.64 and an explosive strike rate of 232.27.

“It’s always a balance of, as a bowler, understanding what you do well and how you’re going to bowl to your strengths. But when there are probably one or two players in every lineup who can take the game away from the opposition, you do spend a little bit longer working on a Plan B or Plan C,” Cummins said.

“So, yeah, we’ll plan for him. Even though he got a hundred against us last time, I thought there were times when we actually bowled quite well to him and kept him quiet. At other times, he got away from us. So, we’ll learn from that.”