Published: Feb 06, 2025, 04:30 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 06, 2025, 04:30 PM (IST)
Australia skipper Pat Cummins and seamer Josh Hazlewood have both been ruled out of the upcoming 2025 ICC Champions Trophy. The Baggy Greens have until February 12 to make 4 changes to the original 15-member squad which they announced on January 13.
Apart from Cummins and Hazlewood, all-rounder Mitchell Marsh has also been ruled out due to injury while Marcus Stoinis announced his sudden retirement from the format on Thursday.
Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood have both been officially ruled out of the Champions Trophy. The two of them “are managing some ongoing injuries and haven’t come up in time for the Champions Trophy,” chief selector George Bailey said on Thursday.
“While disappointing, it does present a great opportunity for other players to perform for Australia in a world event,” Bailey added.
While Cummins is still recovering from the ankle injury that he sustained in the Border-Gavaskar series, Hazlewood has a hip problem which also saw him miss out on majority of matches in the Test series against India.
With skipper Cummins ruled out of the tournament, head coach Andrew McDonald has revealed that Steve Smith and Travis Head are the 2 players in consideration to become Australia’s captain for the tournament.
“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 [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 added.
