T20 World Cup 2026: Australia announce final squad, Cummins ruled out

Australia suffered a major setback just one week before the T20 World Cup 2026, as star pacer Pat Cummins was ruled out of the tournament due to an ongoing back injury. The same issue had troubled him during the Ashes series. Cricket Australia announced their 15-player squad on Saturday (Jan 31), with the tournament set to begin next week in India and Sri Lanka. Mitchell Marsh will captain a strong side aiming to win Australia’s second T20 World Cup title. Cummins is not the only big name missing from the squad, as experienced batter Steve Smith and hard-hitting all-rounder Matt Short were also left out.

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Selector Tony Dodemaide explained that left-arm pacer Ben Dwarshuis has been chosen as Cummins’ replacement. He further said that Dwarshuis’ ability to swing the ball at good speed and use smart variations makes him a good fit for the expected conditions and the team’s balance.

“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," he added.

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Australia is placed in Group B along with Ireland, Oman, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. They will start their campaign against the Ireland on Feb 11 in Colombo, then face Zimbabwe on Feb 13, Sri Lanka on Feb 16 and Oman on Feb 20.

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, Matthew Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Renshaw, Marcus Stoinis and Adam Zampa