Australia captain Pat Cummins is expected to miss the Ashes opener in Perth as doubts grow around his availability for the entire Test series against England.<\/p>\n
Cummins has been sidelined with a back injury<\/a> that the latest scan revealed has not yet healed.<\/p>\n While the scan showed improvement with his back stress issue<\/a>, Cummins is not ready to resume bowling just six weeks out from the first Ashes Test starting on 21 November.<\/p>\n The 32-year-old was ruled out of Australia\u2019s recent white-ball series against South Africa and New Zealand, and will sit out the upcoming ODIs and T20s against India<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cricket Australia declined to comment on Cummins\u2019 fitness and has not ruled out the fast bowler from the first Test as he continues to work through his rehabilitation.<\/p>\n Cummins last played in the 3-0 Test series sweep of West Indies in July and his absence would be a huge blow to Australia\u2019s hopes of retaining the Ashes that they have held since 2018.<\/p>\n Scott Boland is likely to take Cummins\u2019 place in the pace attack alongside Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood after the evergreen quick took a hat-trick in his most recent Test for Australia in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n Steve Smith will almost certainly stand in as skipper if Cummins is unavailable to face England, having led the side several times since the star quick was appointed Test captain in November 2021.<\/p>\n The fifth and final Ashes Test in Sydney will begin on 4 January, leaving Cummins with little time to slot back into the Australia XI if he is to miss the start of the series.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers’ thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week\u2019s action<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n