Champions Trophy 2025: Pat Cummins 'hugely unlikely' to play, Steve Smith or Travis Head can captain Australia

Australia captain Pat Cummins is “hugely unlikely” for the Champions Trophy 2025 , opening doors for Steve Smith to return as ODI captain. Travis Head is also an option, Australian cricket team coach Andrew McDonald revealed.

Cummins is currently sitting out of the Australian Test tour of Sri Lanka due to the birth of his second child. The 31-year-old pacer is also recovering from an ankle issue that aggravated during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Cummins, Hazlewood could miss Champions Trophy 2025

McDonald revealed besides Cummins, 34-year-old pacer Josh Hazlewood could also miss the Champions Trophy 2025.

“Pat Cummins hasn’t been able to resume any type of bowling so he’s heavily unlikely, so that would mean that we do need a captain,” McDonald told SEN. “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.

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“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.

“But, as I said, Patty is hugely unlikely, which is a bit of shame, and we’ve also got Josh Hazlewood, who is battling [to be fit] at the moment. So that medical information will land over the next couple of days and we’ll be able to shore that up and let everyone know the direction.”

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Hazlewood is reportedly down with a hip issue after recovering from the side and calf injuries which forced him to miss three out of five Tests against India and the Test series against Sri Lanka.

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Sean Abbott and Spencer Johnson are among the pacers who could be picked for the Champions Trophy 2025 if Cummins and Hazlewood don’t get fit in time. Australia will also be without Mitchell Marsh in the tournament due to a back injury.

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Smith, who lost captaincy after the ball-tampering scandal in 2018, captained the Australian ODI side during the West Indies series in February 2024 and also against England last year. He is currently captaining the Test side in the absence of Cummins.