{"id":201554,"date":"2025-10-09T23:22:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T23:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/201554\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T23:22:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T23:22:10","slug":"australia-vs-england-pat-cummins-injury-update-uk-reaction-mitchell-starc-scott-boland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/201554\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia vs England, Pat Cummins injury update, UK reaction, Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mitchell Starc has reminded England of the quality of Pat Cummins’ replacements should the Australia captain miss some – or all – of the Ashes series this summer.<\/a><\/p>\n

Cummins is at long odds to be fit for the first Test on November 21 in Perth and there is uncertainty about whether his back issue will allow him to feature in any of the five matches.<\/p>\n

England’s media have described the setback as a huge blow for Australia’s chances although the bookmakers still have the hosts as warm favourites to continue their Ashes dominance Down Under.<\/p>\n

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\"Pat<\/p>\n

Pat Cummins of Australia inspects the pitch at The Oval.\u00a0ICC via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Steve Smith is set to captain Australia at Optus Stadium and Scott Boland is set to replace Cummins with the ball.<\/p>\n

“He’s in great spirits and and one thing I know of Pat is he will doing all he can to hopefully be there for the first Test match – but certainly play as big a part as he can through the Ashes,” long-time teammate Starc told Wide World of Sports radio.<\/a><\/p>\n

“There’s still a few weeks to go.”<\/p>\n

\"Joe<\/p>\n

Joe Root of England celebrates reaching his century.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Joe Root<\/a> would certainly be pleased to not see Cummins steaming in at him.<\/p>\n

The world’s No.1 batsman has been dismissed by Cummins 11 times in Test cricket for an average of 26 runs.<\/p>\n

No bowler has claimed Root’s scalp more often.<\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/p>\n

Scott Boland of Australia speaks with umpire Richard Illingworth after a no ball delivery.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

But Boland skittled England with 6-7 at the MCG in 2021 and boasts a ridiculous average of 12.63 in nine home Tests.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s pretty harsh to call him a replacement,” Starc said.<\/p>\n

“He would have played so many more Test matches in another team or another time. So we know how good Scotty is. He’s so valuable to the group. He’s such a fantastic guy to have around the group as well and if Pat was unfortunately not going to be there, we know how good he can be.<\/p>\n

\"Mitchell<\/p>\n

Mitchell Starc of Australia celebrates with teammates after dismissing Yashasvi Jaiswal of India.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“If that means he plays a huge part through the summer, they might just build his statue (at the MCG) soon.”<\/p>\n

Starc said Australia also took huge confidence in Smith as back-up skipper.<\/p>\n

“We know Smithy’s done it a lot in the past – that’s just an easy transition,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Steve<\/p>\n

Steve Smith at Sydney Cricket Ground.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“If that’s to transpire, where Pat’s unavailable, we know that Smithy is his second hand man anyway, with a lot of tactical stuff, being a voice that he might call upon and we know his wealth of cricket knowledge.<\/p>\n

“We’re pretty well set there with not only Steve, obviously with Trav (Head) and a few other experienced heads around. We’ll let that play out as the weeks go on and we get a bit more understanding of where Pat’s at. There’s plenty of options.”<\/p>\n

For all that, Cummins would of course be missed.<\/p>\n

Ex-England captain Michael Atherton said Cummins was Australia’s “most important player” and would leave “a giant hole to fill.”<\/p>\n

“That combination of nerve, competitiveness and coolness under pressure – his character, in other words – is what has made him a highly effective captain,” Atherton wrote in The Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Should he be missing in Perth, it would unquestionably be bad for the series and bad for Australia, but give a huge lift to an England team looking to win their first Test – never mind series – in the country for more than a decade.”<\/p>\n

\"Stuart<\/p>\n

Stuart Broad of England share a joke with Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins of Australia.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Former England fast bowler Stuart Broad hopes his old sparring partner is fit.<\/p>\n

“Ashes cricket is the best against the best,” Broad wrote on Instagram.<\/p>\n

“Although him missing means England’s chances of winning go up hugely, we want to see Pat play.”<\/p>\n

Ashes-winning England skipper Michael Vaughan mused in The Telegraph<\/a><\/p>\n

“With Pat in charge, Australia are rarely beaten,” Vaughan wrote.<\/p>\n

“He just has this ability to drag them over the line in tight situations. He has a presence that is almost impossible to replace. If Cummins is unavailable then all of a sudden Australia are saddled with a very long tail: Starc, Boland, Hazlewood and Lyon. That batting order is light.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mitchell Starc has reminded England of the quality of Pat Cummins’ replacements should the Australia captain miss some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-201554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}