Australia is sweating over the avaliabilty of their ace bowler and skipper Pat Cummins for the Champions Trophy 2025 as he is expected to miss the tournament because of a sore ankle. With the tournament starting on February 19 in Pakistan and Dubai, the Australian team is rushing to find a way to replace their captain and top bowler.
On Thursday, it was confirmed that Cummins would miss the two-match Test series in Sri Lanka. He will have scans in the next few days to check if he will be ready for the Champions Trophy, which will be held next month.
“We’ll have to wait and see when that scan comes back and see how it’s tracking. There’s a little bit of work to do. We’ll probably get a bit more information around where that’s at,” Australia’s chair of selectors, George Bailey said
Cummins, who captained Australia to win back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after ten years, bowled 167 overs in the five Tests and took 25 wickets at an average of 21.36, the highest by any Australian bowler.
Since leading Australia to victory in the 2023 ODI World Cup, Cummins has played only two ODIs. He captained Australia in the first two matches against Pakistan before the BGT.
Cummins’ absence would be a big loss for the Australian team, especially as they are already dealing with injuries to other important players. The 2023 ODI World Cup winners will have to make some tough choices about both the captain and their bowling attack. Mitchell Marsh is likely to take over as captain, but finding a bowler who can replace Cummins impact will be a real challenge.
Josh Hazlewood injured his calf in Brisbane, which kept him out of the field for last two Tests of the series. He was also left out of the pink-ball Test in Adelaide because of injury worries. Bailey is hopeful that Hazlewood will return for the upcoming matches and mentioned that his recovery is going well.
“Josh is working really hard, and all the news of how he’s responding to his recovery from the calf injury is coming along really well. It’s just probably a little bit tight, given the amount of time that he would have missed and also with how we may structure up and the loads those quicks may be put under,” Bailey said.
Jasir Basharat is a cricket enthusiast capturing the heart of the game through insightful analysis and storytelling sharing his passion for the sport through engaging narratives. He is a business graduate from University of Kashmir.
