What Australia will miss with Cummins sidelined<\/a><\/p>\nPat Cummins injury updates: Latest on Australian captain’s Ashes availability<\/p>\n
There’s no doubt about it, Cummins is racing the clock to be fit for this summer’s Ashes series, with the first Test at least possibly coming too soon.<\/p>\n
Speaking on his recovery from a back-stress issue, the 32-year-old said he was making progress, but still had a lot of boxes to tick before he can play Test cricket.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m running today, and every second day,\u201d Cummins said at Kayo’s summer of cricket launch on October 13.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach run is getting a little longer and then we kind of get into bowling next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably a couple of weeks away before putting on the spikes and bowling out on turf.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a good couple of weeks. Each sessions feels better and better.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re playing a Test match, you want to make sure you\u2019re right to bowl 20 overs in a day and you don\u2019t really have to think about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a bit early to know,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty hard to go from not bowling at all to (playing) five Tests, so first step is trying to have a shot at being right.\u201d<\/p>\n
A back injury saw Cummins miss over five years of Test cricket following his debut as an 18-year-old in 2011, but the New South Welshman has proved remarkably durable since then.<\/p>\n
The captain remained positive regarding his time out of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome days I\u2019m kind of annoyed because it\u2019s the Ashes and a big summer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOther days, I\u2019m a little more realistic. The last seven or eight years, I\u2019ve had uninterrupted home summers so I\u2019ve had a really good run as a fast bowler.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone like [Josh Hazlewood] has missed the last couple of times. He\u2019s been a little more unlucky so maybe it\u2019s my turn.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s not to be, it\u2019s part of cricket getting injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Who will replace Pat Cummins in the Ashes?<\/p>\n
Cummins has been a key part of Australia’s bowling quartet, alongside Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon.<\/p>\n
When either of the three quicks have missed out, Victorian seamer Scott Boland has done an excellent job filling in.<\/p>\n
In nine Tests at home, the 36-year-old has taken 49 wickets at an average of 12.63, including the iconic 6-7 against the English in the Boxing Day Test last time they were out here.<\/p>\n
Boland is almost certain to get the nod if selectors go for a similarly balanced side.<\/p>\n
Alternatively, Starc and Hazlewood could shoulder the bulk of the pace bowling duties, with some combination of all-rounders Cameron Green, Beau Webster and Mitch Marsh helping out to cover the “third seamer” role.<\/p>\n
Waiting in the wings, Michael Neser and Jhye Richardson have had brief tastes of Test cricket, while Sean Abbott, Brendan Doggett and Nathan McAndrew have completed long apprenticeships domestically.<\/p>\n
Regardless, Aussie selectors have some big decisions to make come the start of summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of what is shaping as a blockbuster Ashes series, one of the big talking points coming into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-209050","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\/209050","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=209050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}