Pat Cummins is expected to miss next month's Ashes opener in Perth, with doubts growing over the Australia captain's availability for the entire series against England. The 32-year-old has been sidelined with a back injury that the latest scan showed has not yet healed, despite some improvement. He is not ready to resume bowling just six weeks before the first Test begins on 21 November.
Cummins was already ruled out of Australia's white-ball series against South Africa and New Zealand, and will also miss the upcoming ODIs and T20s against India. Cricket Australia has declined to comment on his fitness and has not ruled him out of the first Test. His last appearance came in July's 3-0 Test sweep of the West Indies, and his absence would be a major blow to Australia's hopes of retaining the Ashes they have held since 2018.
Scott Boland is likely to replace Cummins in the pace attack alongside Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, after taking a hat-trick in his most recent Test in the Caribbean. Steve Smith would almost certainly stand in as skipper, having led the side on several occasions since Cummins was appointed Test captain in November 2021. With the final Test in Sydney starting on 4 January, time is running out for Cummins to work his way back into the XI.
Australia coach Andrew McDonald expressed optimism last month, saying: "We have got time. If it happened any closer [to the Ashes] then you would have to be making key decisions around what it all looks like. But we have got time, a lot more information to come, and as I said, we're really hopeful that he will take a key part in the Ashes."
Joe Root, meanwhile, believes England are ready to "bring the urn home" for the first time since 2015, having last triumphed in Australia in 2010-11. Root has never won a Test match in Australia in 14 attempts and is yet to score a century there. Matthew Hayden has pledged to walk out naked at the MCG if Root fails to get a ton, but the former captain said: "At the end of the day this tour is not about me. 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. It could be six weeks that live long in the memory if we get it right."
In other news, Andrew Flintoff has left his role as head coach of Northern Superchargers in the Hundred, saying the new Indian owners offered him a quarter of the salary of his peers. "I said: 'This isn't going to work for me,' and they weren't going to move on it," he explained.
