Pat Cummins Sidelined For More Than A Month With Wrist Injury, Likely To Recover In Time For ICC World Cup 2023- Reports

Australia captain Pat Cummins is in a race against time to be fully fit and ready for the ICC World Cup 2023. The Australia pace spearhead is currently suffering from a wrist fracture and is set to spend more than a month on the sidelines.

Pat Cummins sustained the injury during the fifth and final Ashes Test against England last month. He suffered the injury to his left wrist while diving in the field during day one of the match at The Oval. And while he managed to play the full Test, he now faces a lengthy time out of action to recover fully.

He will miss the upcoming three-match T20I series against South Africa and could skip the five-match ODI series too even though he has been named in the Australia squad. The ODI series between South Africa and Australia is set to get underway on September 7. With just a month remaining for the series to begin, it would not be surprising if he misses most of the matches.

“Pat injured his left wrist diving in the field on the first day at The Oval,” Australia’s national selector George Bailey said. “He has an undisplaced fracture of his left radius which requires six weeks rehabilitation.

Pat Cummins short of match practice:

Pat Cummins has not played too many ODI games in recent times. Since taking charge of the team last year, he has led Australia in only two ODIs. In March this year, he missed the three-match series against India to be with his mother who was battling cancer.

He is also looking set to miss a few games if not all the games against South Africa next month. And while the Australia captain is definitely short of match practice ahead of the World Cup, Bailey believes otherwise. Bailey said that the Cummins will get ample games to prepare for the World Cup, scheduled to begin on October 5.

“We expect him to join the squad during the South African ODI Series. We view a period of enforced rest for Pat as a positive ahead of this important World Cup campaign.

“There are still a number of games he could play before the World Cup which is more than enough for him to have a strong preparation,” said Bailey.

After the series against South Africa, Australia will play three ODIs against India ahead of the World Cup. They will also play the warm-up games and Cummins would be looking to use those games to finetune his preparations for the marquee event.

Australian squad for ICC Cricket World Cup 2023:Pat Cummins (capt), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Tanveer Sangha, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa