Published on: Feb 6, 2026 5:16 pm IST|Updated on: Feb 6, 2026 5:18 pm IST
In a massive blow to Australia’s T20 World Cup aspirations, senior paceman Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 after failing to recover from a hamstring strain. The 35-year-old was named in Australia’s World Cup-bound squad but has run out of time to regain full fitness and finds himself out of the mix.
Australian chief selector Tony Dodemaide said that the management was hopeful to see Hazlewood board the flight to Sri Lanka (Australia to play all their group games in Sri Lanka) by the Super 8 stage of the tournament, but eventually felt it was a bit too risky.
“We were hopeful Josh would be back to match fitness by the Super 8 stage but the latest indications he is still some time away and accelerating his program will carry too much risk.”
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The Australian team management and selectors have not named any replacement as of now for the senior pacer, as they are opting to reassess based on the conditions and requirements of the World Cup in India and Sri Lanka and are also considering the squad’s balance. Dodemaide added,
“We will not be naming a replacement player immediately. We feel we are well covered for the initial games so will make any later decisions based on priority need at the time,”
After being named in the preliminary squad for the ICC T20 World Cup 2026, Australia’s Test and ODI skipper Pat Cummins was also ruled out ahead of the final squad announcement due to a prolonged back injury. The Test and ODI skipper has been recovering from a back injury that has limited his participation in the last 3-4 months. Cummins was almost certain to skip the Ashes 2025-26 at home but featured in the third Test in Adelaide, and that turned out to be his last international game.
Injury kept Pat Cummins at bay in 2025, as he featured only in 6 Test matches, including the World Test Championship in June-July against South Africa at Lord’s. He didn’t play a single white-ball game last year, with his last T20I appearance coming against India on 24th June 2024 in the T20 World Cup 2024, and his last ODI was on 8th November 2024 against Pakistan at home.
Ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup 2026, Australia is now without senior pacers Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. However, T20I skipper Mitchell Marsh has remained upbeat about his pace attack. During the captain’s meet ahead of the marquee event in Sri Lanka, Marsh stressed the fact that they have built a lot of depth in the pace bowling unit.
“One of the great things about Pat and Josh especially, all being three-format players, is that we’ve been able to build a lot of depth within our squad and the guys that have come in have played a lot of cricket for our group. So we’ve got a lot of confidence in them (the other pacers) to go out there and do the job when required and then we’ll just pick teams based on the conditions.
“Matthew Kuhnemann has been great for us, we’ve also got Adam Zampa and then we’ve got a few spinning allrounders, like most teams will. So I think we’ve got all bases covered and now it’s just about getting stuck into it.
“Over the last 18 months, I feel we’ve been one of the most consistent sides in the world. We come to this World Cup really confident, knowing that conditions will be different at times, but we’ve got guys that have experienced that all over the world. So we look forward to the challenge of playing against everyone.”
Australia is placed in Group B alongside Zimbabwe, Ireland, Oman, and the co-hosts Sri Lanka. They have quite an easy group, with Sri Lanka and themselves tipped as the favorites to go through to the Super 8s. All their group stage fixtures are set to be played in Sri Lanka.
Australia’s T20 World Cup 2026 Squad: Mitchell Marsh (C), Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Tim David, Cameron Green, Nathan Ellis, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Matt Renshaw, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa
Tags: T20 World Cup 2026