Australia set to appoint stand-in captain for Ashes if Pat Cummins misses out due to injury, confirms Chief Selector George Bailey

Veteran batter Steve Smith will be seen leading Australia in this year's Ashes if regular Test skipper Pat Cummins fails to recover from his back injury, confirmed selection chair George Bailey. Cummins, who got injured in July 2025 while featuring against West Indies, has already been ruled out of the white-ball series against India, which is scheduled to start from October 19.

George Bailey for Steve Smith

He is also unlikely to feature in the first Ashes Test, starting November 21 in Perth, and in that scenario, former skipper Smith will captain Australia.

"If Pat doesn't play, Smudge (Smith) will captain. That's business as usual for us. That formula has worked," Bailey was quoted as saying by 'Sydney Morning Herald'.

"Regardless of whether he's playing, Pat's keen to be around because if he's not playing he'll be rehabbing and getting ready and bowling, so he'll be with the team anyway.

"So that information flow and working together as captain and vice-captain will remain the same," he added.

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Smith returned to Australia ahead of Ashes

Smith had returned to Australia from New York this week and had started batting at the nets at Cricket New South Wales headquarters the day after his arrival. Smith will play the next two rounds of the Sheffield Shield for NSW in Brisbane and Sydney.

"Steve landed and he was at Cricket NSW the next day batting. So he'll do his thing. We've tried to tailor everyone's prep to suit them and certain obligations around that, but very comfortably he'll be ready to go," Bailey said.

England Ashes squad

Australia are yet to announce their squad and on the other hand, the England Cricket Board (ECB) have already announced their squad for the Ashes, where they have included Ben Stokes, Mark Wood and Jofra Archer in their side. The trio continue their respective injury comebacks ahead of the series in Australia in November, but fast bowling all-rounder Chris Woakes, who picked up 192 Test wickets and scored more than 2000 runs, has missed out the spot from England's squad.

Ben Stokes (captain), Harry Brook (vice-captain), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith, Josh Tongue, Mark Wood.