IPL 2026: Pat Cummins cleared by Cricket Australia, set to join Sunrisers Hyderabad on Friday

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) skipper Pat Cummins has been cleared by Cricket Australia to join his team in the ongoing IPL 2026 tournament. Cummins has not played competitive cricket since December last year, during the third Ashes Test in Melbourne.

He had missed the majority of the Ashes series as well as the entire T20 World Cup 2026 tournament due to a lumbar back stress injury.

Cricket Australia confirmed that, following his latest scans on Wednesday, Cummins has been completely healed from the injury.

Since August last year, Cummins has played just one competitive match, the third Ashes Test in December.

Prior to that match, the former champions are scheduled to face Chennai Super Kings (18 April) and Delhi Capitals (21 April). Ishan Kishan has been leading SRH in Cummins' absence.

Sunrisers Hyderabad are currently fourth in the 10-team standings, with 4 points from 5 matches. Their two victories so far have come against the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Rajasthan Royals.

Cummins is one of the key pacers whose workload has been monitored by Cricket Australia. The ODI World Cup-winning skipper recently expressed his desire to keep playing all three formats.

"Still very keen to play all three formats, and at the moment I think we can make it work. I love Test cricket," the 32-year-old had said on the Business of Sport podcast in March. “Hopefully I'm in a cadence where I can keep doing that for three, four, five years and don't have to forgo Test cricket,” he had added.

Cummins, who led Sunrisers Hyderabad to the final of IPL 2024, has played 72 matches in the IPL so far. He has taken 79 wickets at an economy rate of 8.81. SRH had gone down to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by eight wickets in the final of IPL 2024.