![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/3bae5fa21f63eec1103497ea26ef24f57ba1c8f0.png\")
Save<\/p>\nSave<\/p>\n
You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n
Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Australia\u2019s Test captain Pat Cummins has conceded he may need to skip next year\u2019s Indian Premier League because of a gruelling international schedule, declaring \u201csomething has to give\u201d if he wants to continue prioritising playing for his country.<\/p>\n Cummins is back home after another IPL campaign with Sunrisers Hyderabad, where he came up against \u201cimpressive\u201d 15-year-old sensation Vaibhav Suryavanshi. He will freshen up before Australia\u2019s next Test assignment against Bangladesh in August.<\/p>\n What follows is a brutal stretch of up to 21 Tests in 12 months \u2014 pending qualification for another World Test Championship final \u2014 with Australia facing South Africa, India and England away before finishing 2027 at the ODI World Cup in Africa. There is also a one-off 150th anniversary Test between Australia and England at the MCG in March.<\/p>\n Wedged in the middle is the IPL, which runs immediately before an Ashes campaign next year in England that Australia will be desperate to win for the first time since 2001.<\/p>\n Cummins said a full five-Test series in India in January and February could leave him needing a break before the Ashes.<\/p>\n \u201cSomething has got to give at some stage next year and it\u2019s not going to be Test matches or an ODI World Cup,\u201d Cummins, an Amazon Prime Video ambassador ahead of the women\u2019s T20 World Cup, told this masthead.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cI will make a call a lot closer and work with the franchise to see what makes sense. Things can change. I\u2019ve had a couple of injuries pop up, so I don\u2019t really want to lock in anything.<\/p>\n \u201cThe priorities for me are always the Test matches and that ODI World Cup. I dare say if I play all of India, I need some sort of break before a pretty gruelling Ashes series.\u201d<\/p>\n The workloads of Australia\u2019s star fast-bowling trio of Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood will be carefully managed over that period, to the point where selectors could consider resting them during periods of a four-Test home summer against New Zealand in December and January.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah it\u2019s possible. I think we\u2019re fairly open-minded to anything, as we\u2019ve seen over the last couple of years,\u201d Cummins said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhether it\u2019s a home Test or an away Test, we don\u2019t see them as that different. A Test match is a Test match. We\u2019re pretty realistic that we\u2019re going to need more than three fast bowlers.<\/p>\n \u201cI see a world where we\u2019re potentially winding some bowlers down, even say at the back end of an Indian series if they don\u2019t look like they\u2019re going to play, to give them an extra rest ahead of the Ashes.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve played one [Test] in the last 12 months, so I\u2019m feeling a lot fresher than maybe some of the other guys, but they are big series. It\u2019s going to be a big push the next 18 months or so, but I think we\u2019ll look back on it hopefully and see it as one of the more rewarding periods of our career.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Cummins said he had been blown away by Suryavanshi, who smashed 72 sixes during this year\u2019s IPL and was named player of the tournament despite turning 15 in March.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d say [the mood in India] is still a little bit of disbelief. I think he\u2019s got enough credits now that he\u2019s not just a flash in the pan. He\u2019s a real talent,\u201d Cummins said. \u201cHe\u2019s just a really good hitter of the ball. He\u2019s clearing [the boundary] by 20 or 30 metres, so your margins for error become really small when someone is that strong and has got so many options. He\u2019s really impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n Cummins also backed Australian women\u2019s captain Sophie Molineux to thrive at her first global tournament in charge. Australia opens its T20 World Cup campaign against South Africa at Old Trafford on June 13. Australia face Bangladesh, the Netherlands, Pakistan and India in the group stages.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re always very good when they go into a tournament,\u201d Cummins said of an Australian side who have won three of the past four tournaments.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve got a couple of young guns who are starting to hit their stride and it\u2019s obviously Soph\u2019s first tournament in charge, so all the signs are looking pretty good.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know Soph very well, but everyone that speaks of her say they love playing alongside her. If you\u2019ve got the backing of the players, most of the other things sort themselves out. She\u2019ll be fantastic. She\u2019s obviously a really popular captain, so she\u2019ll do great.\u201d<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Pat](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/d1f30ad5420f87adc71341d6023c0e855897781f.jpeg\")
Pat Cummins says he may have to skip the next IPL season.Kate Geraghty<\/p>\n![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773734113_832_3bae5fa21f63eec1103497ea26ef24f57ba1c8f0.png\")
Tom Decent<\/a> is the chief sports writer for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-711565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}