Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins will not be a part of Australia’s limited-over home series against South Africa in August. He has, instead, opted for a conditioning break ahead of the home Test summer, which also includes the all-important Ashes.
Having already been excluded from the five-match T20I series against West Indies, the Australian bowler will extend his time off into the South African series, which includes three one-dayers and as many T20Is in the Top End. In addition to Cummins, the rest of the Australian fast bowler trio will also not stay in the Caribbean for the shortest format series, with Josh Hazlewood the most recent exclusion, with young pacer Xavier Bartlett replacing him.
Bartlett enters the squad as the leading wicket-taker in the Major League Cricket (MLC), and has had a decent start to his T29I career with 11 wickets at 14.72 in seven games.
Another of Australia’s fast bowlers, Spencer Johnson, has also pulled out of the West Indies white-ball series due to back soreness he picked up during his time in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Spencer will be replaced by top-order batter Jake Fraser-McGurk.
Although Fraser-McGurk had a below-par IPL season for Delhi Capitals (DC) this year, his returns in the MLC, where he scored 275 runs in 11 innings while striking at 169, make him a good addition to the squad in the Caribbean.
Cummins, however, has a break planned for him before the business end of the year begins.
“I’ll have a good training block for the next couple of months, six weeks or so,” Cummins said. “Probably not bowling, but lots of gym work. [My] body feels pretty good, but there’s always little bits and pieces you’re always trying to get right and then build up for the summer.”
Cummins last played a T20I game during the 2024 T20 World Cup. His appearances in limited-over cricket have become scarce over the past two years. Since lifting the 2023 ODI World Cup, he has featured in only two ODI games, which came against Pakistan in November last year, despite being the designated captain of the side in the format. Some of it had to do with his ankle injury that ruled him out of the Champions Trophy earlier this year.
However, with a T20 World Cup approaching, he will need to get back to bowling with a white ball. There is a possibility of his involvement in some T20 matches in New Zealand and India later this year, as well as a potential availability for the Sheffield Shield.
Regardless of Cummins’ appearance in Australia’s domestic tournaments, there will be plenty of eyeballs on them this season, with Australia’s red-ball side’s top order more rickety than ever. Marnus Labuschagne, whose lean patch saw him axed, Usman Khawaja, who hasn’t had the same fate as his former batting partner, but just yet, and the teenager Sam Konstas, have all had a tough time lately. Consequently, they might not stay in the selector’s good books for a long time. In which case, Shield performances could bring in new talent for the all-important Ashes.
“There’s a lot of Shield cricket to come and some Aussie A stuff as well,” Cummins said. “I think [if] you do well at Test level, any time it’s going to kind of make your case more compelling. I think there’s a bit of a connection to the summer, but it feels a long way away at the moment.”
The T20I series against the West Indies starts on July 20, with the first two matches set to be played at Sabina Park, where the last Test game is currently being played. The final three games are scheduled in St Kitts.
