Pat Cummins will miss Australia’s next T20I series against New Zealand, with Cricket Australia exercising caution over the Test captain’s workload leading up to the high-pressure Ashes later this year.
The 32-year-old seamer, who has just missed out on the white-ball trips to the West Indies and South Africa, has been coping with back stiffness since returning from the Caribbean. CODE Sports says routine scans are scheduled so that he is fully prepared for the home Ashes series starting in Perth.
Though absent from the New Zealand series, Cummins is slated to play in the October ODI series against India and at least one Sheffield Shield game for New South Wales in order to iron out his red-ball touch.
Hazlewood Highlights Individual Preparations
Talking on Thursday, teammate Josh Hazlewood assured that Australia’s Test fast bowlers will have individual build-ups to the headline series.
The Test blokes will do more than one Shield game,” Hazlewood explained. “They’ll likely do two or three, but each guy’s on a different program. Time in the middle, two or three spells a day – difficult to simulate at training.”
Pace Depth Under Watch
With fringe pacer Lance Morris, Spencer Johnson and Ben Dwarshuis all injured, Cummins’ absence highlights the value of Australia’s frontline quartet – Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland and the captain himself – in the Ashes bid.
T20 World Cup Heroics Still Fresh
Cummins’ departure comes after an incredible T20 World Cup 2024, in which he became the first bowler to have taken consecutive hat-tricks in T20I cricket against Afghanistan and Bangladesh. His T20I bowling record now reads 66 wickets in 57 games with an economy of 7.44.
Australia’s three-T20I series against New Zealand gets under way on October 1, 2025, but the eye of the storm is already focussed on the Ashes, where Cummins will be at the forefront leading the attack.
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