No India rest for Cummins with Ashes on the horizon

With the majority of Australia's pace attack nursing injury, Pat Cummins is unlikely to be rested in India ahead of the Ashes.

Published : Sep 13, 2017 19:41 IST

Australia is not planning on giving Pat Cummins any time off during the tour of India, despite the prospect of a gruelling Ashes series to come later this year.

Cummins' pace colleagues Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and James Pattinson are all recuperating from fitness concerns at home, while Australia prepares to face India in five one-day internationals and three Twenty20s.

After making his Australia debut in 2011, Cummins has been plagued by injury but has recently re-established himself on the international scene.

With the five-Test series against old foe England set to begin at the Gabba on November 23, it was thought Cummins may be given a rest during the white-ball tour of India, but stand-in coach David Saker says that is unlikely to be the case.

"At this stage we're planning for him to play all the games," he said. "We'll look at [resting him], it's obviously been brought up between all of us.

"We know that his workloads are up there, but we know it's an important series. It's Australia v India, you don't get any bigger than that.

"He's really determined to play well over here. It'll be game-by-game basis, we'll play it by ear."

Bowling coach Saker, deputising for Darren Lehmann against India, is confident the trio of Starc, Hazlewood and Pattinson will be firing on all cylinders by the time England arrives.

"We're hoping that they'll be ready before the first [Sheffield] Shield game or second Shield game and that will give them good preparation," he said.

"We've probably got a bit of a blessing that we've got three Shield games before the first Test of the Ashes and it's probably as good a build-up as you'd want for an Ashes [series].

"So in that sense as long as they're ready to go by the first Test in Brisbane and ready to play and perform, I'll be really happy."

 

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