Ahead of the Ashes 2025 against arch-rivals England, Australia skipper Pat Cummins is optimistic about his return to competitive cricket.
With still a few weeks away from rotating his arm on the turf, the pacer is showing steady progress in each training session.
“I`d say probably less likely than likely, but we`ve still got a bit of time. I`m running today and running kind of every second day, and each runs a little bit longer, and then we get into bowling prep next week,” Cummins said as quoted by the ICC.
“So I`m probably a couple of weeks away from actually putting on the spikes and bowling out on the turf. But it`s been a good couple of weeks. Each session feels better and better,” he added.
While Pat Cummins knows he is facing a race against time to feature in that first ICC World Test Championship contest against England, he is still giving himself an outside chance of being fit.
He is recovering from a back problem. The first Test match of the Ashes between Australia and England is scheduled to be played from November 21 at the Optus Stadium in Perth.
The pacer is aware of the workload a Test match demands from a bowler and has admitted the fact that a bowler should be fit enough to bowl 20 overs a day.
“You`d want probably at least a month in the nets. If you are to play in a Test match, you want to make sure you are right to bowl 20 overs in a day, and you don`t have to think about it. Four weeks is pretty tight, but I think somewhere around that mark,” admitted the pacer, who has so far played 71 Test matches for Australia.
Cummins believes his back injury won`t be a significant concern in the long term, and he still plans to feature in as many Ashes Tests as possible, with the goal of leading Australia at next year`s ICC Men`s T20 World Cup.
In case Cummins misses out on the first Test match, star batsman Steve Smith would likely take over the leadership duties for the Aussies.
(With ANI Inputs)