Hyderabad, April 5 -- Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) skipper Pat Cummins has flown back to Australia for a final scan on his injured back by Cricket Australia's (CA) medical team, which will give clearance for his participation during the second phase of the Indian Premier League. According to a report in ESPN Cricinfo, Cummins, who has been out of action since July 2025 with just one Ashes Test appearance in between, has returned home to have a final scan on his back. "Cummins left India at the end of SRH's last game, against Kolkata Knight Riders in Kolkata on Thursday. He is expected to rejoin the squad on April 17 if cleared by CA," the report stated. Cummins has been bowling in SRH's training, which is part of the Return to Play protocol. Wicketkeeper-batter Jitesh Sharma said being the vice-captain of Royal Challengers Bengaluru and the leadership experience has added a certain edge to his game. Jitesh was a vital cog in RCB's wheel when they landed their maiden IPL title in 2025, scoring 261 runs down the order with a strike-rate of 177 that boosted the team to above-par totals. "I think whenever you get the responsibility, you feel grateful and privileged and I take extra effort to give something to my team . how can I contribute to RCB," said Jitesh on the eve of the match against Chennai Super Kings here. "I think that gives you an extra responsibility when you are vice-captain of the team." Lauding the Indian players in Punjab Kings' roster as "special" talents, head coach Ricky Ponting said the franchise had the aim of rebuilding the team around the "highest-quality" domestic players. PBKS had retained just Prabhsimran Singh and Shashank Singh, and went into the 2024 auction with a heavy purse of Rs.110.5 crore, and made some high-end buys such as Shreyas Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal and Arshdeep Singh. Someone like young Priyansh Arya has also been outstanding. "Our young Indian talent, the guys at the top of the order, are pretty special. To build some of those Aussie guys around them, we had a really clear strategy going into the auction about trying to rebuild this whole team from the bottom up, and change and be different as a franchise," Ponting told JioHotStar....