Ashes 2025-26: Pat Cummins to lead Australia in Adelaide Test, Josh Hazlewood ruled out of the series

Having already taken a 2-0 lead in the five-match Test series against England, Australia are set to receive a major boost, with skipper Pat Cummins ready to play the upcoming Adelaide Test. However, fellow seamer Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of the series with an Achilles injury. He will now look to recover in time for the T20 World Cup, which begins in February 2026.

Meanwhile, opening batter Usman Khawaja is also expected to be fit and available for the third Test, which gets underway on December 17. The experienced campaigner missed the second Test in Brisbane after failing to recover from back spasms. Travis Head opened the batting with Jake Weatherald. Khawaja is most likely to replace Josh Inglis in the side. Coach Andrew McDonald told reporters that the selectors are open to giving the left-handed batter a chance in the middle order, allowing Head and Weatherald to continue at the top.

The hosts are set to announce a 15-man squad for the third Test on Tuesday, featuring Cummins as the only inclusion.

“His body’s ready to go and barring anything else happening in the next week, I’d be expecting Pat to be tossing the coin and putting the blazer on,” McDonald said.

“Unfortunately, Josh won’t be a part of the Ashes. Really, really flat for him. A couple of setbacks that we didn’t see coming, and we thought he would play a huge part in the series. It’s a totally separate injury. It’s somewhere lower in the calf to Achilles region. His preparation will then shift towards the World Cup, which is an incredibly important campaign for us,” he added.

Cummins had suffered a lumbar bone stress injury after the tour of the Caribbean in July. McDonald stated there are no concerns about Cummins’ preparation heading into Adelaide, despite not playing any cricket over the last four months.

“There won’t be any match opportunities for Pat, and this is something we’ve done with Pat before, off long layoffs, where we’ve put some time and effort into rebuilding his body. He was out at Allan Border Field, whilst everyone was out at the Gabba. So he simulated pretty much what a match will look like out there with multiple spells. So we feel as though he’ll be as best prepared as he can be,” McDonald said.

“He was well ahead of where we thought he’d be at. And it did create a real live conversation for Brisbane, the skill readiness, the loads, how he was pulling up. It was debated a lot leading into that Test match. So with that in mind, us seeing him further advanced, we feel it’d be really well placed for the challenges of Adelaide, albeit off a long way off. We feel as though the simulation in the nets have got him skill ready,” he added.