NEW DELHI: Australia captain Pat Cummins' participation in next year's T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka remains uncertain as he continues to manage a back stress injury that has already disrupted his Ashes campaign against England.

Cummins returned for the third Test in Adelaide after missing the first two matches, taking six wickets and helping Australia seal a 3-0 series victory.

Despite this, the Australian Test and ODI skipper will not feature in the remaining matches of the Ashes, leaving his availability for the T20 World Cup "quite grey at the moment."

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"Looking forward to the World Cup, whether he will be there or not, I can't really say. It's quite grey at the moment. We're hopeful," head coach Andrew McDonald was quoted as saying by 'ESPNCricinfo'.

During Australia's tour of the West Indies in July, the fast bowler was diagnosed with a lumbar stress reaction. After a period of focused rehabilitation, he was given the green light for a controlled return to action in Adelaide.

"He's pulled up fine. He won't play any part in the rest of the series and that was a discussion that we had a long time out around his return," McDonald said.

"We were taking on some risk and people that reported on that would understand the risk associated with that rebuild. We've now won the series and that was the goal.

"So, to position him for further risk and jeopardise him long-term is not something that we want to do and Pat's really comfortable with that," he added.

The T20 World Cup is scheduled to begin on February 7 across India and Sri Lanka with the summit clash set for March 8. Australia's first match is on February 11 against Ireland at Colombo. Although Cummins captains the Test and ODI teams, all-rounder Mitch Marsh leads Australia in the shortest format.

(With PTI Inputs)