• Source:JND

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain Pat Cummins hinted that he could skip the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2027 as he looks to manage his workload during a busy year for Australia.

Cummins has been with the Hyderabad-based franchise for the past three seasons and helped the team reach the playoffs in IPL 2026. However, he missed the start of the tournament this year because of an injury and featured in only eight matches, taking eight wickets.

Australia's cricketing calendar in 2027

Australia face a packed international schedule in 2027. Their year begins with a four-Test series in India during January and February. In March, they will take on England in a one-off Test in Melbourne to mark 150 years of Test cricket. That will be followed by a full Ashes series before the ODI World Cup in southern Africa later in the year.

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With such a demanding calendar ahead, Cummins said Test cricket and the ODI World Cup would take priority over the IPL.

"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 on Wednesday.

"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."

"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."

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Australia have already been careful with Cummins' workload. Last summer, he played only in the Adelaide Ashes Test and skipped the T20 World Cup while recovering from an ongoing back problem.

With experienced fast bowlers Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc also reaching the later stages of their careers, Australia may look at rotating their pace attack. That could include resting some players during the home Test series against New Zealand before the Ashes.

"It's possible. I think we're fairly open-minded to anything, as we’ve seen over the last couple of years," Cummins added.

"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."

"It's going to be a big push the next 18 months or so, but I think we'll look back on it hopefully and see it as one of the more rewarding periods of our career."

Australia are scheduled to play 21 Test matches between August this year and the start of the ODI World Cup in 2027, making workload management a key issue for the team's leading fast bowlers.


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