Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins is likely to skip the Indian Premier League 2027 as he prioritises a gruelling season with Australia, which has several Test matches, an ODI World Cup, a 150th anniversary Test and a potential World Test Championship final lined up. Australia are going to play 21 Test matches in 11 months from August 2026 in what will be an extremely demanding period for the Aussies.
Cummins is now back home after the IPL 2026, wherein he led SRH to the Eliminator after playing in the second half of the tournament. The 33-year-old now gears up for the Test season, which begins with the home series against Bangladesh in August. Following this, the Aussies will host New Zealand for a three-match series in December-January before travelling to India for the Border-Gavaskar series.ย
Cummins states ‘something has to give up’
There are also other tough assignments against South Africa and an away Ashes next year, along with a 150th anniversary Test against England and a potential WTC final place up for grabs. “Something has got to give at some stage next year, and it’s not going to be test matches or an ODI World Cup,” Cummins told the Sydney Morning Herald.ย
“I will make a call a lot closer and work with the franchise to see what makes sense. Things can change. I’ve had a couple of injuries pop up, so I don’t really want to lock in anything,” he said.
Cummins says break needed after India series
The Australia Test and ODI captain stated that he will need a break if he plays the complete five-match Test series against India in January and February. “The priorities for me are always the test matches and that ODI World Cup. I dare say if I play all of India, I need some sort of break before a pretty gruelling Ashes series,” he said.
He highlighted that the likes of Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc will also be carefully managed in the home series against New Zealand later this year. “It’s possible. I think we’re fairly open-minded to anything, as weโve seen over the last couple of years,” Cummins said. “I see a world where we’re potentially winding some bowlers down, even say at the back end of an Indian series if they don’t look like they’re going to play, to give them an extra rest ahead of the Ashes,” he added.
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