Pat Cummins Ruled Out Of Australia's Opening T20 World Cup Fixtures; Injury Forces Seamer To Be Benched

Pat Cummins is expected to miss out on the first couple of matches for Australia in the upcoming ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 in India and Sri Lanka. Given the veteran pacer's expertise, the Aussies would miss out on a significant edge in the competition.

Cricket Australia has missed out on Pat Cummins' services for a significant part of the Ashes Tests. The seamer made a comeback in the third test match at the Adelaide Oval, where Australia had sealed a win over England by 82 runs.

Despite the comeback, Pat Cummins was ruled out of the remaining two fixtures to focus on his recovery from the lumbar bone stress injury.

Pat Cummins Still Recovering, Will Miss Australia's T20 World Cup Opener

George Bailey, the selection chair for Cricket Australia, has revealed that Pat Cummins will participate in the ICC T20 World Cup a bit late. While a concrete timeline wasn't revealed, Bailey had said that the Australian seamer 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 Also Ruled Out Of Australia's Upcoming Bilateral Tour

Pat Cummins has also been ruled out of Australia's upcoming T20I series against Pakistan. Apart from the Aussie seamer, players like Nathan Ellis, Tim David, Glenn Maxwell and Josh Hazlewood have also been rested for the upcoming series

The three-match limited-over series would be a dress rehearsal for the Aussies to fine-tune their strategies and playing combinations for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 in India and Sri Lanka. AUS's T20I tour commences from January 29 to February 1.

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Following that, Australia will jet off to Sri Lanka to commence their T20 World Cup 2026 campaign against Ireland in Colombo. The group-stage fixture will take place on February 11.