Pat Cummins likely to miss Champions Trophy 2025

Australian captain Pat Cummins is in a race against time to be fit for the ICC Champions Trophy set to be played in Pakistan. Australia have their first Champions Trophy game on February 22 and Cummins is nursing a sore ankle. 

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Cummins recently led Australia to a 3-1 win in the Border Gavaskar Trophy and has been rested from the Sri Lankan tour as he is awaiting the birth of his child. 

However, Australian chief selector George Bailey told reporters on Thursday that Cummins is also nursing a sore ankle and that they are waiting for scans to see how the rehabilitation would take place. 

We'll have to wait and see when that scan comes back and see how it's tracking. There's a little bit of work to do. We'll probably get a bit more information around where that's at," Bailey said.

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Another pacer who has been under the scanner for participation in the Champions Trophy is Josh Hazlewood. Hazlewood wasn't named in the Test squad against Sri Lanka as he continues to recover from a calf injury that ruled him out of the final two Tests of the Border Gavaskar Trophy. 

Both Cummins and Hazelwood were a part of the Australian team that won the ODI World Cup in 2023 and would be crucial to Australia's chances of winning the Champions Trophy.

Josh is working really hard and all the news of how he's responding to his recovery from the calf injury is coming along really well," Bailey said. "It's just probably a little bit tight, given the amount of time that he would have missed and also with how we may structure up and the loads those quicks may be put under."

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Steve Smith will be leading the Australian team in Sri Lanka and Mitchell Starc, Sean Abbott and Scott Boland are the three pacers named in the squad.

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