Australia captain Pat Cummins remains hopeful of recovering in time for the opening Test of the upcoming Ashes series against England, despite continuing to battle a back injury that has kept him away from bowling at training. Cummins is already out of the brief limited overs series against India, that precedes the Ashes.
The series opener, also part of the ICC World Test Championship, begins in Perth on November 21 and while Cummins admits the race against time is tight, he hasn’t ruled himself out just yet.
“I’d say probably less likely than likely, but we’ve still got a bit of time,” Cummins said in Sydney on Monday.
“I’m running today and running kind of every second day, and each run’s a little bit longer, and then we get into bowling prep next week. So I’m probably a couple of weeks away before actually putting on the spikes and bowling out on the turf. But it’s been a good couple of weeks. Each session feels better and better.”
Cummins acknowledged that to be ready for the first Test, he would need to start bowling soon and complete a solid training block in the nets.
“You’d want probably at least a month in the nets,” he admitted.
“If you are to play in a Test match, you want to make sure you are right to bowl 20 overs in a day and you don’t have to think about it. Four weeks is pretty tight, but I think somewhere around that mark.”
Despite the current setback, the Australian skipper is confident his back issue won’t pose long-term problems and remains optimistic about featuring in multiple Ashes Tests and leading the team at next year’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
“It’s a back injury that I haven’t had for about seven or eight years, and I’ve played a lot of cricket between that,” Cummins said.
“So if anything, looking back when I was, say, 20 years old and I had this injury, I was a bit worried about what my body could actually handle. But I know in myself that if I get it right, do it properly, when I come back I shouldn’t have to worry about it at all. And hopefully I can play as much, even more cricket than I had previously in the last few years,” he added.