Australian pacer Pat Cummins has been ruled out of the first couple of matches for Australia in the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 which will be held India and Sri Lanka. This is a huge blow and Australia would miss him in the early stages of the tournament. Pat Cummins made a comeback in the third test match at the Adelaide Oval of the Ashes where Australia had sealed a win over England by 82 runs but he was ruled out of the remaining two matches to focus on his recovery from the lumbar bone stress injury. He has been out of action since then and is making progress in order to be fit for the upcoming main event.
This news was confirmed by George Bailey who is the selection chair for Cricket Australia. He revealed that Pat Cummins will participate in the ICC T20 World Cup a bit late. While a correct timeline wasn’t revealed, Bailey had said that the Australian pacer would join the tournament in the third or fourth game. “He will probably join that World Cup group a little bit later in the tournament, around game three or four. Clearly, if something moves and we’re forced to cover that, we will,” Cricket Australia’s selection chair George Bailey said.
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Pat Cummins has also not been picked for the T20I series for Pakistan as he is still recovering. So it is highly likely that Cummins will only take part after the initial games. This is not the first instance of Australia naming a player despite him not being fully available. In the previous 2023 World Cup, Australia picked Travis Head despite him being injured and he could only take part in the last half of the tournament. That move worked wonders as Head won them the World Cup. Australia are next set to play against Pakistan and will move to Sri Lanka to start their T20 World Cup 2026 campaign against Ireland in Colombo. The group-stage fixture will take place on February 11.
