Pat Cummins ‘heavily unlikely’ for Champions Trophy 2025, Travis Head or Steve Smith likely to lead Australia | Cricket News

Australian Head Coach Andrew McDonald revealed that it is “heavily unlikely” that Pat Cummins would be participating in the upcoming Champions Trophy. And there are discussions to make either Travis Head or Steven Smith captain of the side for the tournament.
“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. “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.”
Due to an ankle injury and the birth of his second child, Cummins has been not selected for the ongoing Australia’s two-match Test series against Sri Lanka. Smith has been given the reigns and Australia has thrashed Sri Lanka in the opening Test in Galle an innings and 242 runs.
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“They’re the two obvious ones. Steve has done a great job here in the [first] Test match. He’s done some good work in one-day international cricket across the journey as well. So it’s between those two,” McDonald Said.
“But, as I said, Patty is hugely unlikely, which is a bit of shame, and we’ve also got Josh Hazlewood, who is battling [to be fit] 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. Hazlewood was injured during the Border Gavaskar Trophy.
Australia has released a squad with both Hazlewood and Cummins in it for Champions Trophy 2025. However according to the rules the squads can be tweaked in till February 12.
Squad: Alex Carey (wicketkeeper), Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Matthew Short, Steven Smith, Aaron Hardie, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Pat Cummins (captain), Nathan Ellis, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa