With Australia wrapping up the Ashes on Sunday with 2 matches remaining, skipper Pat Cummins who had returned to the playing XI after missing the first matches due to injury, all but ruled himself out of appearing in the 4th Test at Melbourne, starting on December 26.
“We had a pretty aggressive build up knowing that there’s an Ashes there to be won, and we thought that was worth it. Now that the series has been won, there might be a sense of job’s done and let’s kind of reassess the risk. We’ll work it out over the next couple of days. I doubt I’ll be playing Melbourne and then we’ll have a chat about Sydney. Certainly before the series, it was while the series is alive lets take on the risk and have a crack at it. Now that’s it done, I think we’ll need to have a chat about it,” Cummins said in the post-match press conference after going 3-0 up in the series.
Ahead of the series, England were termed heavy favourites by English media and experts due to Australia severely hampered by injury with Cummins and Josh Hazlewood unable to take part in the first 2 matches. Steve Smith led in those 2 matches at Perth and Brisbane and Australia won both those games by 8-wickets.
“I doubt I’ll be playing (in) Melbourne.”
🗣️ Pat Cummins on his #Ashes availability pic.twitter.com/fm5ISOt1ON
— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) December 21, 2025
Cummins returned for the 3rd match in the Adelaide Oval and led from the front as Australia retained the urn with 2 matches in hand. Smith, however, missed this match due to vertigo.
“You just kind of crack on,” he said. “Even though I missed the first couple of games, Steve stepped right in. It was smooth, seamless. And there’s always things that crop up … but the boys go, ‘OK, that’s happened, let’s crack on, what’s next?’ That’s one of the big reasons why we’ve had success over the last couple of years,” Cummins said to broadcasters after the 3rd match at Adelaide.
