Australia’s Test captain Pat Cummins is expected to miss the upcoming T20I tour of New Zealand as Cricket Australia focuses on managing his fitness ahead of the crucial home Ashes series scheduled for later this year. The 32-year-old fast bowler, who already skipped the recent white-ball series against the West Indies and South Africa, will undergo routine scans on his back due to tightness he has been experiencing since returning from the Caribbean last month, according to CODE Sports. Australia’s three-match T20I tour of New Zealand is set to begin on Wednesday, October 1
Cricket Australia’s decision to rest Cummins highlights the priority placed on preserving his fitness for the five-Test Ashes series, which commences in Perth. Despite sitting out the New Zealand T20Is, Cummins is still expected to participate in the ODI series against India in October and feature in at least one Sheffield Shield match for New South Wales before the Ashes begin.
Fellow fast bowler Josh Hazlewood revealed that Australia’s Test pacers will follow individualized preparation schedules ahead of the marquee Ashes series. “The Test guys will play more than one Shield game,” Hazlewood told reporters. “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.”
Hazlewood further noted, “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.”
Ashes Ahead
Australia’s pace attack is already under close scrutiny ahead of the 2025/26 season, with injuries to fringe quicks Lance Morris, Spencer Johnson, and Ben Dwarshuis. This leaves Cummins, Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, and Scott Boland as the primary bowlers to lead the bowling attack in the Ashes. Cummins’ absence for the New Zealand T20Is follows a remarkable 2024 T20 World Cup campaign where he became the first bowler to claim back-to-back hat-tricks in T20I cricket, achieving this rare feat against Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Overall, Cummins has taken 66 wickets in 57 T20 internationals at an economy rate of 7.44.