Cummins ‘still aims to play’ all five Ashes Tests despite injury

Pat Cummins maintains he’ll be ready for the Ashes when they roll around in November, with his current aim “to play all five,” though the Australia captain is still figuring out just how realistic that goal will be.

Australian fans will wait most of the summer with bated breath as Cummins navigates the lower-back injury he picked up earlier this year. While he wants to play every Test match he can – no surprise there, it’s the Ashes – it’s not quite as easy as whacking on some Deep Heat and trucking out his usual immortal innings for the aging veteran.

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As it stands, the 31-year-old is unlikely to play any of the warm-up matches before the Ashes, which include contests against New Zealand and India, though he may return to proper lead-in work sometime around then either way.

The outlook may be quite cloudy, but Cummins remains hopeful he’ll be ready.

“Once we get closer, we’re probably going to chat through potentially more realistic situations,” he explained.

“This one might be a little bit different because you’re coming in a little bit different than other ones. But the starting aim is for five. The aim is five. Every summer, you kind of aim for five.

“It’s honestly too far out to say, but the aim at the moment is to try and be ready for all of it.”

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The stance from Australia Cricket’s selection officers in mid-September wasn’t as great, with coach Andrew McDonald suggesting he’ll “partake” in the series; not quite the glowing endorsement we’d want to be hearing.

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What may help Cummins make it through all five Test matches is the fact that eight-day gaps are built into the schedule between Perth, Brisbane, and Adelaide, meaning he can recover as needed between each. Only the Melbourne and Sydney Tests on Boxing Day and New Year’s, respectively, have to be played on certain dates.

And the Aussie skipper won’t be appearing for New South Wales either, helping him prep for the big show.

“I don’t think it’s vital,” he said of getting out for any Sheffield Shield warm-ups.

“If you’d asked me 10 years ago, I would have said I really feel like in myself I need to play games. Now it’s centre wickets, net sessions, I’ve bowled a lot more overs. I feel like I can get up to Test level pretty quickly.

“I won’t go into a Test where I feel like I can break down or whatever.”