Australia's captain Pat Cummins has been ruled out of the upcoming T20I series against New Zealand, as per a CODE Sport report. This decision is part of a broader strategy by Cricket Australia to manage the workload of its Test captain in preparation for a crucial home Ashes series later this year. The 32-year-old fast bowler, who also sat out recent white-ball series against the West Indies and South Africa, will undergo routine scans on his back. He has reportedly felt tightness since returning from the Caribbean last month.
Cricket Australia's primary goal is to ensure Cummins is fully fit for the five-Test Ashes series, which is set to begin in Perth. While he won't be traveling to New Zealand for the T20Is, Cummins is still expected to participate in the ODI series against India in October. He is also likely to play at least one Sheffield Shield match for New South Wales to prepare for the Ashes. On Thursday, fellow fast bowler Josh Hazlewood confirmed that Australia's key Test quicks will have tailored preparation schedules leading into the highly anticipated series.
"The Test guys will play more than one Shield game. They'll probably play two or three, but everyone's on different programs. I used it last year and found it very beneficial - time on the field, multiple spells in a day, it's hard to replicate at training. It felt like over the last 12 months the best way for me to go about it is just keep ticking over, keep playing, not having too long off bowling. If I can just stay up there at match intensity as long as I can, that's the best way forward," Hazlewood told reporters.
Australia's pace attack is facing scrutiny ahead of the 2025/26 summer, as several fringe fast bowlers are currently sidelined with injuries. With Lance Morris, Spencer Johnson, and Ben Dwarshuis all out, the responsibility of leading the attack in the Ashes will fall heavily on Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, and Scott Boland. Cummins's decision to miss the upcoming T20I series against New Zealand is a strategic move to manage his workload and ensure he is in top form for the pivotal five-Test series.
This comes after a remarkable performance by Cummins at the 2024 T20 World Cup, where he made history by becoming the first bowler to take back-to-back hat-tricks in T20I cricket against Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The right-arm pacer has an impressive record of 66 wickets from 57 T20 internationals, with an economy rate of 7.44. Australia's three-match T20I tour of New Zealand is set to begin on Wednesday, October 1.