{"id":204692,"date":"2025-10-11T05:10:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T05:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/204692\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T05:10:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T05:10:29","slug":"ashes-series-updates-pat-cummins-in-doubt-harry-brook-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/204692\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashes series updates; Pat Cummins in doubt, Harry Brook comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pat Cummins<\/a> may be racing to beat the clock for the Ashes series<\/a> but his absence could play into England’s hands perfectly, Harry Brook says.<\/p>\n

Cummins remains in doubt for the Ashes after it was reported it is “effectively impossible” for him to play in the first Test<\/a> – which begins on November 21 in Perth – due to a stress injury in his lower back.<\/p>\n

Australian coach Andrew McDonald is “optimistic” the 32-year-old will be fit for the series, although Cummins has yet to resume bowling training. <\/p>\n

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A minimum of four weeks of training is likely the most ideal scenario for Cummins to build his loads enough to take aim at England’s top order.<\/p>\n

\"Pat<\/p>\n

Pat Cummins holds the ball.\u00a0ICC via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Yet if he were to be ruled out of the entire series, Brook believes it boosts England’s chances of claiming the Ashes urn for the first time in a decade.<\/p>\n

“Obviously he is an amazing bowler and has been for many years,” Brook said at Professional Cricketers’ Association awards ceremony.<\/p>\n

“He bowls at high pace, with high skill. With him out of their side for the first game, from [the reports] we’ve seen, hopefully that plays into our hands.”<\/p>\n

Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc will lead Australia’s pace attack in the absence of Cummins, with Scott Boland likely to replace the injured star.<\/p>\n

Boland’s talent has not gone unnoticed by Brook, with the 36-year-old infamously claiming 6-7 in his Test debut during the 2021 Ashes series. <\/p>\n

“They have a hell of a lot of good, quick bowlers out there,” Brook added.<\/p>\n

“They have guys who can come into the side and when their tails are up, they can plough through teams. We can’t take anybody lightly.”<\/p>\n

\"Harry<\/p>\n

Harry Brook of England looks on during the 2nd Metro Bank ODI between England and South Africa at Lord’s Cricket Ground.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

The series will be one of Brook’s biggest career tests to date as he looks to help England turnaround their troubling run of Test results.<\/p>\n

England has lost 13 of their last 15 Tests in Australia, although Brook’s ability with the bat has helped them significantly in recent overseas Tests.<\/p>\n

But Brook has never played a Test match on Australian soil.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know what I’m stepping into,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I know it’s a massive thing, but I’m still trying to get over that India series. That was the most intense series I’ve been part of. If the Ashes tops that, I will be a very happy man.<\/p>\n

“I can’t remember much about the 2023 Ashes, if I’m honest. It’s a very similar group of players that we’ll come up against: a very strong bowling attack and on home soil they’ll present different challenges.<\/p>\n

“I haven’t had too much experience of the pitches out there, so I have to stay in the moment as much as possible and play what’s in front of me.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pat Cummins may be racing to beat the clock for the Ashes series but his absence could play…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-204692","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\/204692","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=204692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}