Australia captain Pat Cummins has been ruled out of the first Ashes Test against England next month.<\/p>\n
Fast bowler Cummins will not be fit to play when the series starts in Perth with Steve Smith replacing him as the team’s captain, Cricket Australia said.<\/p>\n
An issue with his lower back has kept Cummins on the sidelines, making him a doubt for the first Ashes Test, which starts on November 21.<\/p>\n
While he can run, Cummins has not been able to resume bowling due to the back stress injury and there is now less than a month to go as the countdown continues to the first Test.<\/p>\n
“Cummins has resumed running and expects to return to bowling shortly,” Cricket Australia said in a statement.<\/p>\n
He now faces a race to be fit for the second Test, which will begin in Brisbane on December 4.<\/p>\n
His replacement as captain, Smith, has previous experience in the role and stepped in for Cummins before to lead the side.<\/p>\n
Scott Boland is expected to come into Australia’s bowling line-up for the first Test.<\/p>\n
Ashes series in Australia 2025-26<\/p>\n
All times UK and Ireland<\/p>\n
First Test: Friday November 21-Tuesday November 25 (2.30am) – Optus Stadium, PerthSecond Test (day\/night): Thursday December 4-Monday December 8 (4.30am) – The Gabba, BrisbaneThird Test: Wednesday December 17-Sunday December 21 (12am) – Adelaide OvalFourth Test: Thursday December 25-Monday December 29 (11.30pm) – Melbourne Cricket GroundFifth Test: Sunday January 4-Thursday January 8 (11.30pm) – Sydney Cricket Ground<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia captain Pat Cummins has been ruled out of the first Ashes Test against England next month. Fast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":{"0":"post-253535","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}