Australia will be without Test captain Pat Cummins in the first match of the 2025/26 Ashes against England, to begin at Perth from November 21.
Pat Cummins ruled out of first Ashes Test
Cummins had not played competitive cricket at any level since the Test series in the West Indies, in July. The first reports of his likely absence in the first Ashes Test surfaced in early September: his workload needed to be managed due to a “lumbar bone stress”.
Cricket Australia has now confirmed that Cummins will not be fit in time for the first Test, and Steve Smith will lead in his absence. “Cummins has resumed running and expects to return to bowling shortly,” added the release.
There is no official update on who would replace Cummins in the playing XI. However, Scott Boland has been Australia’s de facto replacement fast bowler for some time.
Australian head coach Andrew McDonald as good as confirmed the same as well: “Losing your captain’s not ideal, but when you talk about Scott Boland being the potential replacement, it’s not a bad position to be in.”
“Hopeful for the second Test match”
“We sort of flagged this a week or so ago that it would take sort of four plus weeks to get him up and running and we’ve run out of time,” McDonald told the media, “but really optimistic and hopeful for the second Test match”.
“So I suppose the next question is, what’s the time frame? What does it look like for the second Test? Not really going to be able to answer that other than to say that he’ll be back bowling this week and that’s a huge step. That was the big variable that we wanted to add in and get that information. So we’re on the journey to that second Test and very hopeful that that will be a positive outcome.
“[We’ll] see how he pulls up and then we’ll make decisions moving forward. I know that sounds really boring and everyone wants a time frame and what’s the risk associated with it. There’s better people than I to speculate on what that is.
“With the nature of this injury, it’s never going to be a clear timeframe, and I think that’s what everyone here today wants is a timeframe to say, this is definitely what will happen. We’re not in a position to do that and I’d never put the medical team under that sort of duress either.
“I suppose you get excited about when he does come back, what an injection that will be to the group, a fully fit Pat Cummins returning some stage during the Ashes and that’s what we’re hopeful for. It’ll almost be one of those things where you’ll see him in work and it’ll almost be a question of why isn’t he playing in Perth? That’s where we think he’ll be placed by that stage, so we’re excited by getting eyes on him in a bowling capacity.”
