Sydney: An injury concern looms over Australian skipper Pat Cummins ahead of next month’s Champions Trophy with the pacer set to undergo a scan on his “sore ankle”, and chairman of selectors George Bailey refusing to confirm his availability for the marquee event.
Cummins has been troubled by the ankle issue throughout the Australian summer but managed to guide his team to a 3-1 victory over India in the marquee Border-Gavaskar Test series recently.
Bailey did not commit whether Cummins was a certainty for the Champions Trophy, starting on February 19.
“Not really sure yet, we’ll have to wait and see where that scan comes back and where it’s tracking,” he told ‘nine.com.au’.
Australia announced its squad for the two-Test away series against Sri Lanka with several stalwarts, including Cummins, missing from the list. The team, made up mostly of fresh faces, will be captained by top-order batter Steve Smith.
“Pat’s obviously on paternity leave for the next little bit,” Bailey was quoted a saying on Thursday.
“There’s a little bit of work to do, he’s got a little bit of a sore ankle as well so I think in the next week or so he’s got a scan coming there and we’ll get a bit more information around where that’s at,” he added.
Bailey though expressed confidence that pacer Josh Hazlewood, who was ruled out of the pink-ball Test at Adelaide due to a left side injury and missed the last two games as well due to a calf strain, would be fit for the Champions Trophy.
“He’s working really hard, and all the news on how he’s responding to the calf injury is coming along really well.
On Hazlewood not featuring in the Sri Lanka-bound squad, Bailey said, “It was just probably a little bit tight (for this squad) given the amount of time he would’ve missed and again looking how we potentially may structure up those loads those quicks may be put under.
“It just worked out that unfortunately for him he didn’t quite get there in time (for Sri Lanka Tests) but really confident he should be fit and raring to go for the Champions Trophy,” added Bailey.
