Australian captain Pat Cummins wouldn’t settle for missing out on playing the Ashes, which begins on November 21 in Perth. Cummins, whose scans revealed lumbar bone stress, will sit out the upcoming white ball series against New Zealand and India. However, he is ready to get ‘a bit aggressive’ to ensure he leads the Australian side in the home Ashes series.
The Australian quick has not played any form of cricket since winning the Caribbean Test series in July, missing out on the white-ball series against West Indies and South Africa. Speaking to the reporters in Brisbane, Cummins seemed hopeful that he would be fit in time for the series.
“That would be devastating, so we’ll be doing everything we can to try to be right for that and try to make a few decisions a little bit closer, but confident,” Cummins told reporters in Brisbane on Wednesday. “Do the rehab right and give it a good crack.
“It’s a big Ashes series. It doesn’t get much bigger, so I think you’re willing to take a few risks and be a little bit aggressive to try and play as much Test [cricket] as you can.”
Besides New Zealand and India series, the injury has also busted his plans of playing the Sheffield Shield games this year. This means, if he plays the Perth Test, it will be his first competitive game in around four months. But Cummins is least bothered by that. He believes that at this point in his career, he doesn’t need elaborate warm-ups to keep his pace up.
“At this stage of my career, I feel like I can probably get up to speed a bit quicker than when I was 18 or 19,” he said. “Back then, you probably felt like you needed to play a few [Sheffield] Shield games or one-dayers. I’m pretty confident even if I don’t get a chance to play a Shield game, I’ll be able to get up to speed.”
Cummins experienced soreness in his lower back after the West Indies Test series, where he bowled just 60 overs across three games, his lowest overs tally in a Test series with at least three matches.
“Gave it kind of another month [after the tour], have had a pretty quiet month to help settle it down and had another scan on Monday which [was] not terrible, but kind of enough to know that there’s a little bit there and kind of got to be careful for the next little bit,” Cummins said.
“It doesn’t feel too bad, but I’m obviously not bowling or doing too much at the moment. With bone injuries, you really just want to settle it down. I’m still doing a bit of gym, but no real running, no bowling. Get that right and then we’ll build up to the summer. We’ve got loads of time, there’s about 12 weeks until the first Test. We’ll see how the next little bit pans out.”
Australia have reinforcements to turn to, should Cummins’ back injury not settle within time. Scott Boland, who has stayed as an understudy to Australia’s fast bowling trio, could come into replace him as a bowler, while Steve Smith can deputise him as a captain, as he has done so several times before.
“We always talk about we need a lot of depth,” Cummins said. “We’ve been lucky in the last couple of years. We kind of haven’t had to go past the four guys really, but guys like Sean Abbott…Doggy [Brendan Doggett], there’s about four or five guys. Ness [Michael Neser] has obviously been around, Jhye Richardson.
“There’s guys who have been in and around the Test team over the last few years and haven’t had too many opportunities, but we know they’re going to be good enough if they’re needed. But hopefully the other three are going to be fighting fit, plus me, and we’ve got plenty of resources.”
