Who is Shivang Kumar? SRH’s young spinner makes IPL 2026 debut against KKR

The Sunrisers Hyderabad, in an aim to open their account for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026, locked horns with the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens. Both sides lost their respective opening games of the event as the Hyderabad side is coming off their defeat against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the curtain raiser.

For the Orange Army, their captain, Ishan Kishan, lost the toss and was put into bat first on a surface that was a bit sticky at the start and could be challenging in the second innings. The Sunrisers handed a debut cap to the left-arm wrist spinner, Shivang Kumar. 

Shivang Kumar’s background, domestic career, and rise to IPL

Shivang Kumar is being touted to be the left-arm wrist spinner, Noor Ahmed, of Madhya Pradesh, who can also chip in with 30s and 40s whenever his team requires. He had been making waves in the recent edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

In three games, he picked up 10 wickets, including the maiden five-wicket haul against Karnataka in Ahmedabad in the List A cricket in just three 50-over appearances. The 23-year-old came into the IPL 2016 champions’ side for a price of INR 30 lakh during the auction.

At times, his career reminds one of Noor or even the former Indian wrist spinner, Amit Mishra. He has the googly to deceive the opponent batters, and the social media video has proved it a lot. Overall, he has four wickets in four T20s at an economy rate of 8.05.

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Hailing from Rewa- a region known to produce Kuldeep Sen and Ishwar Pandey, Shivang’s cricketing education started under his father. Praveen Kumar, a chief Ticket Inspector in the Railways, harbored the dreams of representing India and lived the dream inside the young spinner.

Why Sunrisers Hyderabad picked the young all-rounder in auction

Before the auction, Shivam attended the trials with the Punjab Kings, Mumbai Indians, and the Rajasthan Royals, as all of them gave him encouraging feedback. SRH called him twice during the SMAT 2025/26. They eventually showed their faith in the wrist spinner and handed him the debut at the Eden Gardens.

SRH couldn’t get much from their international leg spinner, Adam Zampa, in the last season. But they hope to get better control and wickets from Shivang to control the middle overs and dry up the run rate.

What Shivang Kumar brings to SRH in IPL 2026

Shivang’s life came to a disappointment when he failed to make it into the Under-14 team, as he walked away for five months, before coming back strongly in better shape, after watching the biopic on MS Dhoni’s career, which changed everything.

SRH will hope to see the same character and control with the ball from Shivang in the middle overs during the IPL 2026. If he can do that and get impressions at this stage, it will be a massive plus point for the youngster.