Australia’s Test captain, Pat Cummins, has shared a frank update on his recovery from a lumbar back stress injury, admitting it’s now “less likely than likely” he’ll play in the first Ashes Test in Perth next month.
The 32-year-old bowler revealed he’s feeling better with each rehabilitation session but is still “a couple of weeks away” from bowling on turf. Cummins began running last week and plans to commence bowling drills in the coming week. “You’d want at least probably a month in the nets,” he explained. “If you play a Test match, you want to make sure you’re right to bowl 20 overs in a day and you don’t have to really think about it. So four weeks is pretty tight, but I think somewhere around that mark.”
While coach Andrew McDonald offered a more optimistic outlook recently, Cummins highlighted the significant challenge of transitioning directly from no bowling to a demanding five-Test series. “With these things, it’s pretty hard to go from not bowling or doing anything at all to suddenly playing five Tests,” he stated. “First steps are trying to give me a shot at being right, and then we’ll work out how much I play.”
Despite the risks, Cummins acknowledged the immense importance of the Ashes, expressing a willingness to take “calculated risks” in the short term. “This is the big series in this next six to 12-month block. But you’ve got to weigh that up against taking stupid risks as well that might cost you in the long term.”
The origin of the injury, which first caused discomfort during Australia’s 3-0 sweep of the West Indies in July, remains somewhat unclear. “Maybe it was sometime throughout last summer, maybe it’s been brewing for a little while, we don’t exactly know but West Indies was the first time I felt it,” Cummins noted.
He concluded by expressing confidence in Australia’s formidable bowling depth should he be sidelined. “Scotty [Boland], he’s coming off a hat-trick, so no doubt he’ll be in for a big summer,” Cummins remarked. “One of the things we’ve done really well is when someone’s missed out, someone else has stepped straight in and done a brilliant job.”