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Australian captain Pat Cummins in doubt for Champions Trophy as ankle injury revealed

Australian captain Pat Cummins in doubt for Champions Trophy as ankle injury revealed

Pat Cummins is under an injury cloud ahead of next month’s Champions Trophy campaign in Pakistan, with the Australian captain set to undergo scans on a sore ankle this week.

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On Thursday afternoon, Cricket Australia confirmed that Cummins wouldn’t feature in the upcoming Test tour of Sri Lanka due to the birth of his second child, with vice-captain Steve Smith leading the team in his absence.

However, CA also revealed the 31-year-old was battling an ankle issue that he had managed throughout the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, putting him in doubt for the Champions Trophy.

“There’s a little bit of work to do,” national selector George Bailey told reporters on Thursday.

“He’s got a little bit of a sore ankle. I think in the next week or so he’s got a scan coming, and we’ll probably get a bit more information around where that’s at.”

Pressed on whether Cummins would recover before the Champions Trophy, Bailey responded: “Not really sure yet. I think we’ll have to wait and see where that scan comes back and see how it’s tracking.”

Australia’s first match of the Champions Trophy, a major ICC event the nation hasn’t won since 2009, is against Ashes rivals England in Lahore on February 22. If Cummins were unavailable for the tournament due to injury, all-rounder Mitchell Marsh would most likely captain the side.

Pat Cummins of Australia. Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images

Meanwhile, Bailey was “really confident” that seamer Josh Hazlewood, who was also ruled out of the Sri Lanka tour due to injury, would recover from his calf strain before the Champions Trophy.

“He’s working, working really hard,” Bailey continued.

“All the news on how he’s responding to his recovery from the calf injury is coming along really well.

“It just worked out that, unfortunately for him, he didn’t quite (recover) in time (for the Sri Lanka tour), but we’re really confident that he should be fit and raring to go for the Champions Trophy.”

Elsewhere, Bailey declared he was “very hopeful” all-rounder Cameron Green would be available for June’s World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord’s as a specialist batter.

The West Australian underwent back surgery earlier this summer, ruling him out of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign against India.

Australia’s squad for the Champions Trophy is set to be announced in the coming days.