Pat Cummins ‘heavily unlikely’ to feature in Champions Trophy 2025

Australia’s longer formats captain Pat Cummins will likely miss the highly-anticipated ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025, scheduled to be hosted by Pakistan from February 19 to March 9.

The right-arm pacer, who skipped Australia’s ongoing Test tour of Sri Lanka due to the birth of his second child, is also nursing an ankle injury, which he sustained in the recent five-match home Test series against India.

Australia’s Champions Trophy-bound players, who are not featuring in the ongoing red-ball series, are expected to depart for Sri Lanka on Thursday. But, their head coach Andrew McDonald shared on Wednesday that skipper Cummins is unlikely to accompany them.

McDonald further revealed Steve Smith and Travis Head as the frontrunners to replace Cummins in the leadership role for the eight-team tournament if the 31-year-old gets ruled out.

"Pat Cummins hasn't been able to resume any type of bowling so he's heavily unlikely, so that would mean that we do need a captain," McDonald told SEN.

"Steve Smith and Travis Head are the two that we've been having conversations with while we've been building out that Champions Trophy team along with Pat back home. They'll be the two that we look at for that leadership post.

"They're the two obvious ones. Steve has done a great job here in the [first] Test match. He's done some good work in one-day international cricket across the journey as well. So it's between those two.

The 2009 champions are also sweating on Josh Hazlewood’s availability as the right-arm pacer is reportedly dealing with a hip issue after recovering from side and calf injuries, which kept him out of action for the majority of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT).

"But, as I said, Patty is hugely unlikely, which is a bit of shame, and we've also got Josh Hazlewood, who is battling [to be fit] at the moment. So that medical information will land over the next couple of days and we'll be able to shore that up and let everyone know the direction."

Australia have already missed the services of all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, who has been ruled out of the tournament due to a back injury.

Australia's squad for Champions Trophy 2025: Pat Cummins (c), Alex Carey, Nathan Ellis, Aaron Hardie, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Short, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa.