Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins will all miss the start of IPL 2026. Jack Edwards and Nathan Ellis are set to be ruled out.
Big three of Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood to miss IPL 2026 start
Starc has joined his pace-bowling partners, Hazlewood and Cummins, in missing the start of IPL 2026. There is no clarity on the number of games the three Australia greats will miss, but cricket.com.au have confirmed that they will at least not feature in their respective franchise’s first game of the season.
Hazlewood’s Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Cummins’ Sunrisers Hyderabad will face off in the tournament opener in Bengaluru on March 28, but without the two fast bowlers. Cummins, also SRH’s full-time captain, has been replaced by Ishan Kishan as the skipper on an interim basis. Abhishek Sharma has been appointed the team’s vice-captain.
The duo have been nursing respective injuries for a major part of the home summer, with Cummins managing to play just one Ashes Test due to a back stress injury. Hazlewood, meanwhile, missed the entirety of the Ashes due to a hamstring issue. Neither of the pacers featured in the T20 World Cup as well, where Australia were knocked out from the group stage.
Starc, on the other hand, played all five Ashes Tests and also the Big Bash League and Cricket Australia are thus eager to manage his workload, with away Test series against South Africa, England and India coming up over the next year, on top of the ODI World Cup. The left-arm pacer’s Delhi Capitals side begin their IPL 2026 campaign on April 1 against Lucknow Super Giants.
Also read: IPL 2026 injury tracker, live updates
Ellis and Edwards to miss entire IPL season
Chennai Super Kings’ Nathan Ellis, meanwhile, aggravated a hamstring injury he had suffered before the T20 World Cup during the recent One-Day Cup final while playing for Tasmania. He is thus, as per reports, set to be ruled out of the upcoming season with CSK looking for replacements.
Batting all-rounder Jack Edwards, signed by the Sunrisers for INR 3 crore at the IPL 2026 auction, has also been ruled out due to a foot injury, leaving SRH in need of a replacement.
Also read: Who is Jack Edwards, the Australian domestic record-breaker?
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