Pat Cummins is expected to miss next month's Ashes opener in Perth as doubts grow over his availability for the entire Test series against England. The Australia captain has been sidelined with a back injury that the latest scan revealed has not yet healed. While the scan showed improvement in his back stress issue, Cummins is not ready to resume bowling just six weeks out from the first Ashes Test starting on 21 November.
The 32-year-old was ruled out of Australia's recent white-ball series against South Africa and New Zealand and will sit out the upcoming ODIs and T20s against India. Cricket Australia declined to comment on Cummins's fitness and has not ruled him out of the first Test as he continues his rehabilitation. 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's hopes of retaining the Ashes they have held since 2018.
Scott Boland is likely to take Cummins's 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. Steve Smith will almost certainly stand in as skipper if Cummins is unavailable, having led the side several times since Cummins was appointed Test captain in November 2021.
Australia coach Andrew McDonald backed Cummins to play a part in the five-Test series when speaking on SEN radio last month. “It's not ideal … he is working through a program. It was a routine scan on the back of the West Indies tour, he does have a lumbar bone stress issue there, so he will just work through what his return to play looks like,” McDonald said in September. “We have got time. If it happened any closer then you would have to be making key decisions, but we're really hopeful that he will take a key part in the Ashes.”
Joe Root believes England are ready to “bring the urn home” having not won the series since 2015 and last triumphed in Australia in 2010-11. Root himself is yet to win a single match in Australia in 14 attempts and, despite 39 career hundreds, is still waiting to bring up his first in the country. However, for Root that is a distraction from the tourists' wider goal. “At the end of the day this tour is not about me,” said Root. “When we look back in five years' time no one is going to remember what Matthew Hayden said to me. They are going to look back on the scoreline and think that it's a historic England win or not.”
