Pat Cummins likely to miss Sri Lanka Test for birth of his second child

Australia might be without their regular skipper Pat Cummins for one of the two Tests against Sri Lanka or probably the whole series next year in January-February with the pacer set to be on paternity leave for the birth of his second child.

Australian captain Pat Cummins is set to become a father for the second time with his wife Becky Boston. Having missed his first child, son Albie's early days of his birth due to national duty, Cummins doesn't want to be absent this time around and hence, he might miss the Sri Lanka tour, which is scheduled during that expected period of January end-early February. The series is a crucial one from the World Test Championship (WTC) final qualification point of view with Sri Lanka in the race for a spot.

However, Cummins has decided to put his family first and mentioned that prioritising loved ones wouldn't and shouldn't be a point of concern for anyone in the team as cricket is not the end of world. "Within reason, no one is ever going to bat an eyelid if someone needs to put their family first," Cummins was quoted as saying by The Age ahead of his unveiling as Prime Video's brand ambassador in Australia.

"We’re playing cricket, it’s not the end of the world, so we want people to have long, successful careers for Australia, and you can’t just ask them to put their life on hold to go tour the world and forget about everything else. We’re pretty open when it comes to family," Cummins mentioned while saying that planning the exact date is tough but confirmed that he won't miss it this time around for anything in the world.

"We haven’t worked out exactly what that looks like – it’s pretty hard to plan exactly the day, but definitely. I missed a big chunk [of son Albie’s early days] last time and I want to work out how we can spend a bit more time at home for that initial period this time around," Australia's Test and ODI captain added.

The messaging is consistent with all the players since both Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head will also miss the ODI series against Pakistan early November due to their respective paternity leaves.

Australia are scheduled to play a five-match Test series at home against India in November, December and early January. A few of the national Australian players have signed up with their respective Big Bash League sides for the latter part before touring Sri Lanka for two matches. Australia are currently in the second spot on the World Test Championship (WTC) points table.