Mumbai's Pat Cummins ruled out of IPL

Pat Cummins, the Mumbai Indians fast bowler, has been ruled out of the 2018 IPL season with a back issue. Cricket Australia has said Cummins has "bone oedema in his vertebrae", and that he will sit out the tournament to ensure he does not aggravate his condition any further.

Mumbai signed Cummins for INR 5.4 crore (USD 831,475 approx) at the IPL player auction in January. He did not feature in the team's season-opener against Chennai Super Kings on Saturday.

"Pat experienced some back soreness during the fourth Test in South Africa. Follow-up scans have confirmed that he has bone oedema in his vertebrae," said Australia physio David Beakley. "It is important that Pat has time off bowling, to prevent the injury becoming more serious and consequently we have made the decision to rule Pat out of the IPL.

"Pat will now undergo a period of recovery and rehabilitation and we will look to re-scan him in a few weeks to assess the healing. Following this we will be in a better position to decide on Pat's return to play timeline including participation in the limited-overs tour of the UK."

Australia are scheduled to travel to England in June to play a bilateral series of five ODIs and a one-off T20I.

Cummins has a history of stress fractures in his back, which kept him out of Test cricket for nearly six years between his debut in November 2011 and his second Test in March 2017. Since his comeback on the 2016-17 tour of India, however, he has been a regular in Australia's bowling attack, featuring in 13 successive Test matches.

Cummins is just coming off a four-Test series in South Africa, where he was Australia's highest wicket-taker with 22 at 21.45 apiece. Since making his return to Test cricket in March 2017, Cummins has bowled 594.5 overs. Only Nathan Lyon (690 overs) and the currently injured Kagiso Rabada (644.4) have bowled more.