Australia’s pace spearhead Pat Cummins has revealed that his injury-forced withdrawal from the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup was also influenced by his determination to be fully fit for a demanding Test season ahead, where he hopes to feature in every match.
The Australia Test and ODI captain was ruled out of the tournament after failing to recover in time from a back injury and was replaced in the squad by Ben Dwarshuis. While Cummins admitted he is feeling “really good” physically, medical timelines ultimately forced him to take a cautious call.
Pat Cummins prioritises long Test calendar after scan setback
Cummins has been managing the back issue since Australia’s tour of the West Indies last July. Speaking to the Australian Associated Press, the 32-year-old said he simply ran out of time after a follow-up scan showed he needed more recovery.
“It was really unfortunate. I feel pretty good, just a minor setback — but I ran out of time,” Cummins said. “I’ll rest up for a few weeks and go from there.”
“We knew after the Adelaide Test we were going to need somewhere between four and eight weeks to let the bone settle before building back up. Initially, we thought it might only be four weeks because I was feeling really good, but the scan showed it probably needed a couple more weeks. The timeline became a bit too tight.”
Australia face a packed Test schedule beginning in August, starting with a two-Test home series against Bangladesh in Darwin and Mackay, followed by a Test and ODI tour of South Africa in September. That will be followed by home Tests against New Zealand, a five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy tour of India, and the pink-ball 150th anniversary Test against England at the MCG in March.
The calendar then includes an away Ashes series, the ODI World Cup, and a potential World Test Championship final at Lord’s in June.
“We thought the first half of the year was a good time to be conservative with the amount of cricket coming up,” Cummins said. “If you get it right now, hopefully you won’t have to worry about it later and you can just play all those Test matches.”
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“Whereas if you’re not careful and it flares up, you end up chasing your tail,” he added.
Despite missing the World Cup, Cummins is hopeful of returning in time to lead Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League, which begins on March 26.
“We’ll be guided by my back. We’ll have another scan in a few weeks and, if it’s good, we’ll have a slow build-up,” he said. “T20s are a bit easier to get up for than Tests, that’s why I was so close to making it for this World Cup.”
Australia’s build-up to the tournament has been far from ideal, having suffered a 0–3 whitewash in Pakistan. However, Cummins believes the squad is well placed to respond.
“It wasn’t our greatest few games, but the guys are coming off a strong Big Bash and a couple are returning from injury,” he said. “Morale is good. The boys know how big this is, they’re desperate to get started.”
(By PTI Inputs)
