As Australia gear up to lock horns with their arch-rivals England in the much-awaited Ashes series, the Aussies have found themselves in a difficult situation as skipper Pat Cummins is likely to be ruled out of the first Test match.
There are higher chances of the pacer missing out on the entire series after the latest scans revealed that his back stress problem has not yet fully healed, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Australia and England will clash against each other in the five-match Test series, scheduled to kick start from November 21. The first game is scheduled to be played at the Optus Stadium in Perth.
Cummins, who was optimistic about featuring in the Ashes series, seems to have no chance of making his appearance in the opening match. In case the 32-year-old pacer misses out on featuring in the series, Steve Smith would likely be an automatic choice for the stand-in captaincy role.
Cummins underwent a scan just last week to track his progress and was told that the “hot spot” of the stress was still healing and bowling right now would not be advisable, revealed the sources.
The update will likely delay his return to play until the last few weeks of the year and make it very challenging for him to speed up in time to participate in a tightly scheduled Ashes series. Cricket Australia has not commented so far.
If Cummins misses out on the initial matches of the series, it would be helpful for the Australians to add the likes of Scott Boland as the third pace bowling option along with Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc.
Australia is yet to announce their squad for the Ashes, whereas the “Three Lions” have already released their 16-man squad for the much-anticipated contest.
Before the Ashes, Australia will clash against Team India for the white-ball series, which includes three ODIs and five T20Is.
England`s squad for The Ashes: Ben Duckett, Harry Brook, Ollie Pope, Zak Crawley, Ben Stokes (C), Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Will Jacks, Jamie Smith (WK), Brydon Carse, Gus Atkinson, Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue, Mark Wood, Matthew Potts, Shoaib Bashir.
(With ANI Inputs)