Australia cricket team is heading for a packed schedule. Cricket Australia (CA) is set to both tour and arrange multiple bilateral series in the upcoming months. In their upcoming fixtures, there will be multiple Test series, including The Ashes. After the conclusion of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL), the Aussies will embrace themselves for those contests. The schedule will be stretched up to the next year, 2027.
Because of the tight schedules, questions have started to arise over the availability of Pat Cummins in the next year’s IPL. Will he make himself available to play in the IPL 2027 with the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)? Amid the IPL 2026 season, former New Zealand cricketer, now a cricket expert and commentator, Simon Doull, presented a clear verdict.
Pat Cummins to miss the IPL 2027 season?
Pat Cummins has already missed multiple matches in the ongoing IPL campaign. Cricket Australia ensured the fitness of their key players, like Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, before allowing them to join their respective IPL teams. Mitchell Starc, another key pacer of the Australian cricket team, missed the initial few matches as well.
Australia had a better time to forget the 2026 T20 World Cup run, but they are still one of the most dominating forces in the Tests. Over the years, the Baggy Green brigade has prioritized playing in the longest format of the game with full-strength teams. In the upcoming days, they are expected to remain firm on their vision.
SRH may have to find a new captain for the next season
In 2027, the Aussies will have to play two back-to-back high-calibre Test series, one against the arch rivals England for The Ashes, and another one will be against India for the Border-Gavaskar trophy.
Simon Doull predicted that because of back-to-back Tests, Pat Cummins could miss the IPL 2027 to keep himself match-ready for the national cricket team. Doull predicted that, in the next edition of the league, in place of the pacer, Sunrisers Hyderabad will have to assign someone as their next captain, maybe Ishan Kishan.
“You’ve got 20-something Test matches between August this year and August. Well, he’s not playing the next IPL, then, come on. I don’t think, I don’t think, I don’t, well, we talked about this the other night, I don’t think any of them are going to, any of the bowlers in particular are coming next year,” the former cricketer said in a Cricbuzz show.
Ishan Kishan is likely to lead SRH in 2027
“They play five Tests in India and then five in England straight after the IPL. So I’m not sure how many of them are coming. So that’s why I’m with Ishan Kishan, I think he just, he just holds on to it because he’s probably going to have to captain a lot for them next year,” he added.
As of now, Ishan Kishan is the favorite to lead the team if Pat Cummins is unable to play for SRH in 2027. In the absence of Pat Cummins, Ishan played as the stand-in captain of the franchise in the initial stage of IPL 2026.
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