Australia captain and pace spearhead Pat Cummins is “heavily unlikely” to be fit in time for this month’s Champions Trophy, head coach Andrew McDonald has revealed, opening up the possibility of either Steve Smith or Travis Head leading the side.Cummins hasn’t been able to resume training after he missed the Test series in Sri Lanka due to the birth of his second child, while also nursing an ankle problem, which flared up during the gruelling five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India.
“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,” ICC quoted McDonald as saying on SEN Radio.
“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 (Cummins) back home. They’ll be the two that we look at for that leadership post,” added McDonald.