Cummins is yet to recover from his back injury sustained before the 2025-26 Ashes series.
Australia have suffered a major setback ahead of the T20 World Cup 2026 as star pacer Pat Cummins has been ruled out of the global showpiece due to injury.
Cummins is yet to recover from his back injury sustained before the 2025-26 Ashes series, which kept him sidelined from four out of five Tests.
The right-arm quick underwent an intense rehabilitation during the Ashes and made a brief comeback in the third Test at the Adelaide Oval, starring with six wickets, but didn’t feature in the last two games as Australia were wary that extending his workload could lead to long-term fitness issues.
While Cummins was expected to return in time for the T20 World Cup, Cricket Australia said he "needs more time" to recovery fully and will miss the tournament that commences in India and Sri Lanka on February 7.
The 2021 champions finalised their squad for the marquee event by making a couple of changes on Saturday (January 31). Top-order batter Matthew Short has also been snubbed from the original 15-member squad.
Left-arm pacer Ben Dwarshuis and batter Matthew Renshaw were drafted into Australia's squad and selector Tony Dodemaide believes the pair can perform well during the competition.
“With Pat needing more time to recover from his back injury Ben is a ready replacement who offers a left-arm pace option as well as dynamic fielding and late-order hitting," Dodemaide said.
“We believe his ability to swing the ball at good pace along with clever variations will be well suited to the conditions we expect and overall structure of the squad.
“Matt (Renshaw) has impressed in all formats of late, including in multiple roles in white ball formats for Australia, the Queensland Bulls and the Brisbane Heat.
“With the top order settled and spin heavy conditions expected in the pool stages in Sri Lanka, we also feel Matt provides extra middle order support, with Tim David completing his return to play program in the early phase of the tournament.
“As a left hander, he (Renshaw) also offers a point of difference to the middle order batting.”
Australia will open their T20 World Cup campaign against Ireland in Colombo on February 11.
Australia squad for T20 World Cup 2026: Mitchell Marsh (c), Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Cameron Green, Nathan Ellis, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matt Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Matt Renshaw, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa