Australia Test and ODI captain Pat Cummins, who is not playing the ongoing Champions Trophy 2025, has shared an update on his injury status.
Cummins was ruled out of the 2025 Champions Trophy following a gruelling Test summer where he was managing an ankle injury which falred up towards the end of the 2025 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Steve Smith has been leading Australia in his absence.
When will Cummins be fit?
On Wednesday (February 26), Cummins told ESPNCricinfo that his rehab is on track and that he is about to resume bowling for the first time since the break.
"The ankle is all going strong," Cummins said. "[I 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."
Cummins has important assignments lined up ahead of him starting with IPL 2025 next month followed by the World Test Championship final in June against South Africa. For now though, the Australia quick has cleared the air around his prospects of participation in IPL 2025. "Should be fine [for the IPL], that's the plan," he said. "So have a few weeks of bowling, building back up and then hopefully don't have to worry about it for a while."
Speaking on the importance of managing workloads and injuries, which requires players to often miss certain tournaments and series, Cummins said it has become a necessity in today's cricket and often allows players to stay in shape for longer periods of time.
"Sometimes by missing the odd tour, you actually end up playing more cricket for the whole year," Cummins 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."
What is Cummins' record at SRH?
Cummins led the Sunrisers Hyderabad to the IPL 2024 final where they were defeated by Kolkata Knight Riders. He has been retained by the franchise at INR 18 crore for IPL 2025.
2024 was the best year for Cummins personally in the IPL as well as he took 18 wickets at an economy rate of 9.28. With the bat, he scored 136 runs at a strike rate of 143.16. Overall, Cummins has claimed 63 wickets and scored 515 runs in his IPL career.
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