Australian media reported<\/a> on Wednesday that he will miss the first Test in Perth on 21 November and is doubtful for the whole series.<\/p>\nOn Friday McDonald said there was “a lot more positivity” surrounding the skipper’s chances of playing in the opening Test but he would need at least “four, four-and-a-half weeks” of bowling practice to condition his body for the rigours of Ashes cricket. The first Test is six weeks away.<\/p>\n
“The reality is, we’re starting to get tight in terms of the times,” McDonald said.<\/p>\n
“We’re still optimistic, hopeful, but this time next week, I think we’ll be in a position to get a better gauge on where he’s at.”<\/p>\n
McDonald said he would weigh up whether Cummins could be included in the side even if he was a “little bit underdone”.<\/p>\n
Cummins has taken 309 Test wickets at an average of 22.10 runs per dismissal.<\/p>\n
He is even more formidable in Australia, taking 177 wickets at 19.92, while he has also taken 91 wickets against England in 19 matches.<\/p>\n
England vice-captain Harry Brook said it would be a “bonus” if Cummins was to miss out but warned that they could not take any replacement lightly.<\/p>\n
“Pat Cummins is a phenomenal bowler and has been for so many years now,” said Brook on BBC Radio 5 Live. <\/p>\n
“He’s got incredible skill at high pace and if he’s not there it’s a bonus for us.<\/p>\n
“But they have got lots of amazing bowlers so I’m sure they’ll draft someone in who is very skillful. We can’t take anyone lightly.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia remain hopeful that captain Pat Cummins will be fit for the first Ashes Test against England in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-190268","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}