Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Australia’s fast-bowling spearhead Pat Cummins has revealed that he came very close to being part of the T20 World Cup 2026 squad, but a minor delay in his recovery resulted in ‘his running out of time’ for final 15-team squad.
Cummins was replaced by Ben Dwarshuis in Australia’s squad for the mega tournament, which begins on February 7, due to an ongoing back issue. The right-arm pacer said he was feeling good physically but simply did not have enough time to complete his recovery.
“It was really unfortunate. I feel pretty good, just a minor setback, and just ran out of time, really. I’ll rest up for a few weeks and go from there,” Cummins said to AAP, as quoted by the ICC. The Australian captain explained that after the Adelaide Test, the medical team felt his back needed between four and eight weeks of rest before he could build up his workload again.
“We knew after the (Adelaide) Test match we were going to need somewhere between four and eight weeks to let the bone settle right down before then building back up. Initially, we thought it might only be four weeks, because I was feeling really good, but just had a follow-up scan,” he said.
“They thought it probably needed another couple of weeks, so the timeline just became a bit too tight,” he added.
Cummins is now hopeful of returning to competitive action during the Indian Premier League (IPL) in March, but stressed that his main focus is being fully fit for a busy test calendar later in the year.
