ABC News
source: ABC / Website
Australia coach Andrew McDonald is confident injured captain Pat Cummins will be fit to play a major role in the men’s Ashes, even if he does not feature in all five matches of the series.
Cummins is recovering from a lower-back injury that has troubled him since Australia’s tour of the West Indies earlier this year.
“We have got time. If it happened any closer (to the Ashes) then you would have to be making key decisions around what it all looks like,” McDonald told the SEN radio station.
“But we have got time, a lot more information to come, and as I said, we’re really hopeful that he will take a key part in the Ashes.”
Cummins will not feature in Australia’s white-ball series against New Zealand and India in October.
McDonald said staff had not worked out a timeline for Cummins’s return to international cricket.
He said he was not banking on Cummins or his fellow fast bowlers playing five Tests against England.
“From the get-go, we never really planned for five Test matches for most of our fast bowlers,” McDonald said.
“Over the last couple of years we have been lucky with shortened games early in the summer, to be able to deliver five Test matches [for a fast bowler].
“We will see what that looks like for Pat.”
The men’s Ashes series start in Perth on November 21.
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