Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood have both been officially ruled out of the Champions Trophy. The two of them "are managing some ongoing injuries and haven't come up in time for the Champions Trophy," selection chair George Bailey said on Thursday.
Australia have until February 12 to finalise their Champions Trophy squad, and they will have to make at least four changes to the initial 15-man squad they had named on January 13. Apart from Cummins and Hazlewood, they are also without Mitchell Marsh, who is grappling with a back injury and was ruled out of the tournament on January 31, and Marcus Stoinis, who announced on Thursday that he would be retiring from ODI cricket, removing himself from the Champions Trophy squad as a result after being selected in the original 15.
February 12 is also the day when Australia play the first of two ODIs against Sri Lanka in Colombo. They have added three quicks, Sean Abbott, Spencer Johnson and Ben Dwarshuis for those two games as well as legspinner Tanveer Sangha, spin-bowling allrounder Cooper Connolly and batter Jake Fraser-McGurk.
It's possible that two of the three quick bowlers could get into the Champions Trophy squad while Fraser-McGurk appears to be the like-for-like replacement for Marsh given he has not been bowling much recently in ODI cricket and was locked in to bat at No. 3. Connolly could be the replacement for Stoinis but there is now only one seam-bowling allrounder, Aaron Hardie, left in the current squad. Test allrounder Beau Webster has not been included among the additions to the Sri Lanka ODI squad.
"While disappointing, it does present a great opportunity for other players to perform for Australia in a world event," Bailey said.
Cricket Australia said Cummins and Hazlewood would begin an "extended period of rehabilitation". They are missing the ongoing Test series in Sri Lanka too. Both have IPL contracts with Cummins set to lead Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) again while Hazlewood is returning to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). Whether they can play any part in the IPL ahead of the World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord's in June remains to be seen.
Australia are likely to pick between Steven Smith and Travis Head to lead Australia in the two Sri Lanka ODIs and then the Champions Trophy.
Prior to Thursday's confirmation, Australia coach Andrew McDonald told SEN radio on Wednesday that Cummins was "heavily unlikely" to make the Champions Trophy which meant Australia would need a new captain with the ODI vice-captain Marsh also unavailable.
"Steve Smith and Travis Head are the two that we've been having conversations with while we've been building out that Champions Trophy team along with Pat back home," McDonald said.
"They'll be the two that we look at for that leadership post. They're the two obvious ones. Steve has done a great job here in the [first] Test match. He's done some good work in one-day international cricket across the journey as well. So it's between those two."
Cummins skipped the Sri Lanka Tests to be at home for the birth of his second child, but he has also been nursing the ankle issue that had flared up after a heavy workload in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India. Hazlewood is understood to be dealing with a hip issue after recovering from the side and calf injuries that made him miss three of the five Tests against India and the Test tour of Sri Lanka.
The selectors might also have a challenge cobbling an XI together for the first ODI against Sri Lanka given that, apart from the missing players, there is only one travel day scheduled between the fifth day of the second Test and the first ODI, with ODI squad members Head, Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis, Alex Carey and Mitchell Starc all playing the Test match that is currently on in Galle. Starc would seem very unlikely to play in those two ODIs.
AAP contributed to this news report.