Huge blow to Australia, Pat Cummins highly unlikely to lead squad in ICC Champions Trophy

Pat Cummins missed out the AUS vs SL Test series owing to the birth of his second child

The Australia Cricket Team has been handed a major setback. Captain Pat Cummins is highly unlikely to make it to the ICC Champions Trophy. Reports claim in his absence it will be ace batters like Steve Smith and Travis Head who would likely lead the Men in Yellow.

Australian coach Andrew McDonald also claimed that Josh Hazlewood is also expected to be fit for batting in the ICC event. Skipper Pat Cummins missed out on the Test series against Sri Lanka owing to the birth of his second child. However, reports have emerged that the star all-rounder is currently suffering from an ankle injury.

Steve Smith or Travis Head likely to lead

After the dominating 3-1 win in the Border Gavaskar Trophy, Cummins has been under workload management to recover from his injury. In the meantime, the players who were not a part of the Test squad are expected to fly out to Sri Lanka. But Cummins is not expected to depart with the team.

“Pat Cummins hasn’t been able to resume any type of bowling so he’s heavily unlikely, so that would mean that we do need a captain,” McDonald told SEN.

Andrew McDonald added that Pat Cummins is yet to recover from his injury. As a result, he hasn’t been able to resume bowling in the nets. And with barely 2 weeks remaining for the ICC mega event, Team Australia is in dire need of finding a captain.

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“Steve Smith and Travis Head are the two that we’ve been having conversations with while we’ve been building out that Champions Trophy team along with Pat back home. They’ll be the two that we look at for that leadership post,” McDonald said.

“They’re the two obvious ones. Steve has done a great job here in the Test match. He’s done some good work in One-Day International cricket across the journey as well. So it’s between those two. But as I said, Patty is hugely unlikely which is a bit of shame and we’ve also got Josh Hazlewood who is battling at the moment. So that medical information will land over the next couple of days and we’ll be able to shore that up and let everyone know the direction,” he added.