An injury concern threatens to dog the Australian team even as skipper Pat Cummins readies up for the upcoming Champions Trophy when the pacer undergoes a scan on his "sore ankle," chairman of selectors George Bailey unwillingly kept in silence his availability to play at this marquee event.
Cummins had been bothered by the ankle injury throughout the Australian summer but went on to steer his team into a 3-1 victory over India in the marquee Border-Gavaskar Test series recently.
Bailey said nothing to indicate that Cummins was a sure shot for the Champions Trophy, to be held starting from February 19.
"Not really sure yet, we'll have to wait and see where that scan comes back and where it's tracking," he told 'nine.com.au'.
Australia on Tuesday named its squad for the two-Test away series against Sri Lanka, with some big names missing out on the team, including Pat Cummins. The team that is mostly consisting of new faces will be captained by Steve Smith, top-order batter.
"Pat's obviously on paternity leave for the next little bit," Bailey was quoted as saying on Thursday.
"There's a little bit of work to do, he's got a little bit of a sore ankle as well so I think in the next week or so he's got a scan coming there and we'll get a bit more information around where that's at," he added.
However, Bailey did indicate that he believed pacer Josh Hazlewood, who has already been ruled out of the pink-ball Test at Adelaide because of a left side injury and then missed the last two games as well due to a calf strain, would be available for the Champions Trophy.
"He's working really hard, and all the news on how he's responding to the calf injury is coming along really well.
On Hazlewood not featuring in the Sri Lanka-bound squad, Bailey said, "It was just probably a little bit tight (for this squad) given the amount of time he would've missed and again looking how we potentially may structure up those loads those quicks may be put under.".
"It just worked out that unfortunately for him he didn't quite get there in time (for Sri Lanka Tests) but really confident he should be fit and raring to go for the Champions Trophy," said Bailey.
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