Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will be relieved to have their skipper Pat Cummins back in action. Cummins, who was ruled out of the ongoing Champions Trophy 2025 from the Australian set-up, was also speculated to miss the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. The pacer was managing an ankle injury during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. The issue became a bit more intense during the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.
“The ankle is all going strong, [have been] able to give it a good rest and then been building up slowly, which you don’t get to do when you play lots of cricket. It’s feeling as strong as it has for a fair while. Should be fine [for the IPL], that’s the plan. So have a few weeks of bowling, building back up and then hopefully don’t have to worry about it for a while,” Cummins said.
The 31-year-old explained the status of his injury.
He said, “It’s something that we’ve opted never to have surgery on or intervene too much, just a lot to rehab. Having this break meant that I could get a couple of cortisones and really rehab it well the last couple of weeks.”
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After the completion of this year’s IPL in May, Australia will have a busy schedule ahead. Cummins’ team will be pitted against South Africa for the ICC World Test Championship Final in June, followed by Tests and T20Is in the West Indies till the end of July. The Ashes are set to begin in November later this year. The Aussie calendar is not only jam-packed with different tournaments but also inclusive of various formats of the game. The seamer feels that apart from missing a few white-ball games, he will be ever-present for the national side.
“Sometimes by missing the odd tour, you actually end up playing more cricket for the whole year,” he said. “I think in the past you used to play everything, whereas now, absolutely, you try and make sure the players are at their peak for as long as you can for the year and to play as much of the important stuff each year. It’s just the way of the world. Everyone’s used to it.”
The absence of the powerful trio of Cummo, Josh Hazlewood, and Mitchell Starc in the ongoing ICC event has put Australia’s pace attack in inexperienced hands. However, the combination of Nathan Ellis and Ben Dwarshuis did a fine job in a high-scoring game against England in their tournament opener. The responsibilities of the batting department were well handled by Josh Inglis and Alex Carey. Cummins heaped praises for his team’s brilliant performance in their only match of the tournament so far.
Australia’s next fixture, against South Africa in Rawalpindi, was abandoned without a ball being bowled. They stand second in the Group B points table with three points and an NRR of 0.475. To reach the semis, Australia will have to win their contest, preferably by a huge margin, against Afghanistan on February 28.
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