The Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins has broken the silence on his withdrawal from the 2026 T20 World Cup due to a back injury he sustained during the side’s tour of the West Indies.
Since then, Cummins has featured in a single test in the Ashes and rested for the rest to regain his full fitness in time for the T20 World Cup.
Despite showing positive signs, Cummins was eventually ruled out of the tournament due to a minor setback.
He decided not to risk his long-term health and was replaced by left-arm pacer Ben Dwarshuis in Australia’s squad for the competition.
“It was miserable. I feel pretty good, just a minor setback, and just ran out of time, really. I’ll rest up for a few weeks and go from there. We knew after the [Adelaide] Test match we were going to need somewhere between four and eight weeks to let the bone settle right down before then building back up,” said Pat Cummins.
“Initially, we thought it might only be four weeks, because I was feeling really good, but I just had a follow-up scan. They thought it probably needed another couple of weeks, so the timeline just became a bit too tight,” Pat Cummins added.
Australia’s T20 World Cup campaign has multiple injury concerns heading into the T20 World Cup. With Cummins out, Tim David and Nathan Ellis have been sidelined from the Australia squad for the recently concluded T20I series against Pakistan.
Both have regained full fitness and recovered from their respective injuries and will be available for the side’s campaign.
On the other hand, Josh Hazlewood hasn’t recovered from his Achilles issue and is expected to miss the first phase of the tournament.
Sean Abbot has been named as the travelling reserve. As per the Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 schedule, Australia will play their opener match against Ireland on February 11 at R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo.
Australia Squad for T20 World Cup: Mitchell Marsh (c), Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Cameron Green, Nathan Ellis, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Renshaw, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa
