Pat Cummins is reportedly set to miss the upcoming T20 tour of New Zealand as Cricket Australia wraps the Test captain in cotton wool ahead of the home Ashes campaign.
The 32-year-old, who skipped Australia’s recent white-ball series against the West Indies and South Africa, will undergo routine scans on his back having experienced some tightness since returning from the Caribbean last month, CODE Sports reports.
However, according to News Corp, Cummins is still expected to feature in October’s ODI series against India and play at least one Sheffield Shield match for New South Wales before the first Ashes Test in Perth.
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Speaking to reporters on Thursday, fellow quick Josh Hazlewood confirmed Australia’s Test bowlers would each be on different programs ahead of the Ashes.
“The Test guys will play more than one Shield game,” he said.
“They’ll probably play two or three, but everyone’s on different programs. I used it last year and I’ve sort of found that it’s very beneficial. Time on the field, multiple spells in a day, it’s sort of hard to replicate it at training.
“It felt like over the last 12 months, the best way for me to go about it is just keep on ticking over, keep playing, not having too long off bowling.
“So if I can just keep staying up there, match intensity as long as I can, then that’s sort of the best way for me to go about it.”
Elsewhere, fringe pacemen Lance Morris, Spencer Johnson and Ben Dwarshuis are each nursing injuries ahead of the 2025/26 summer, heaping further pressure on Cummins, Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland to stay fit for the five-Test Ashes campaign.
Australia’s three-match T20 tour of New Zealand gets underway on Wednesday, October 1.
