Australia Test captain Pat Cummins has been ruled out of remainder of the Ashes 2025-26. After the Adelaide win to retain the Ashes, Cummins expressed doubts over playing the Boxing Day Test. On December 23, it was confirmed that he won’t play another Test in the series as Cricket Australia don't want to gamble on his fitness and jeopardise their long-term plan.
"He won't play any part in the rest of the series," Australia head coach, Andrew McDonald told reporters on December 23. "That was a discussion that we had a long time out around his return. Yeah, we were taking on some risk. We've now won the series, and that was the goal.
"To position him for further risk and jeopardise him long term is not something that we want to do. Pat's really comfortable with that. If he had any setback in the build-in as well, we would have shut him down straight away.
"Everything went really smoothly, and full credit to him, the medical team and to navigate through that risk profile, to get him back and take six wickets in that game and nail the Ashes series was incredibly pleasing for everyone associated with that."
Who will replace Cummins at the MCG?
In Cummins’ absence, Steve Smith will lead Australia again whereas an in-form Mitchell Starc will lead the pace attack. The skipper has been replaced by Jhye Richardson in the squad. Richardson played his last Test in 2021. It is yet to be seen whether Richardson gets a place or Brendan Doggett walks back into the playing eleven for the fourth Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Other options is Michael Neser who claimed a fifer at The Gabba.
Is Cummins gearing up for T20 World Cup 2026?
Cummins has been managing a back stress injury. He missed the first two Tests of the Ashes. His last appearance was in July 2025 in the pink-ball Test against the West Indies. He missed several white-ball series leading up to the Ashes. It isn’t clear whether the 32-year-old is in Australia’s plans for the T20 World Cup 2026 in India and Sri Lanka. His last T20I appearance was in 2024 but he has plenty of experience playing in India, especially leading the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League (IPL).