Australia captain Pat Cummins has been ruled out of the first Ashes Test due to a back injury, with Steve Smith set to lead the side in his absence.

The Australia captain has been sidelined with a back stress injury since July. “We’ve run out of time,” head coach Andrew McDonald told reporters here. “We sort of flagged this a week or so ago that it would take four plus weeks to get him up and running and we’ve run out of time, unfortunately, but really optimistic and hopeful for the second Test,” he added.