Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon are both poised to return for the third Ashes Test in Adelaide, says selection chief George Bailey, who also revealed how close Australia’s captain was to playing in Brisbane.
Cummins’ faster-than-anticipated recovery from his back injury this week saw him go from out of the hosts’ squad altogether to the verge of returning for the day-night Test on an overs restriction.
Australia’s flirtation with playing the 32-year-old star quick delayed their eventual call on which two of Lyon, Michael Neser, Josh Inglis and Beau Webster would play. Neser and Inglis got the nod, but Bailey guaranteed Lyon would return for the third Test.
Cummins now also looks a certainty for Adelaide too having only been ruled out of featuring at the Gabba late on match eve.
The right-armer this week progressed to bowling on consecutive days as part of his return from his lumbar stress injury. He was bowling again in the Gabba nets on Thursday evening as medicos gradually give him a longer leash.
“He’s going to bowl a certain amount of overs this week. So it’s like, ‘Well, if you’re going bowl them here (in the nets), can it be there (in the Test)?'” Bailey said during play on day one.
“The key factors were, what does that look like for post this (Test), and are you accentuating that risk going forward?
“Then what are the uncontrollables in a game and does that put other players under pressure?
“It was going to be a hard number of overs.
“Once we got up here, saw his training, got as much of the background medical information as well, it became a live possibility.
“Then it was just working through the permutations of what would that look like in terms of the amount of overs, what would it look like going forward as well?
“It became a live conversation, hence probably leaving some of the other decisions until late.”
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After ultimately deciding not to risk Cummins, Bailey and fellow panel members Andrew McDonald and Tony Dodemaide made what the head selector termed a “line-ball” call to pick Neser over Lyon.
The panel also considered selecting Webster in Neser’s place to deepen their batting, or instead of Inglis, given the allrounder’s solid batting returns since making his Test debut earlier this year and being an unfortunate omission for the first Test of this series.
Lyon has a formidable record in Adelaide and looks certain to return there.
Bailey suggested the pace of recent Tests Australia have played has limited Lyon’s ability to make an impact as much as the prevalence of seam-friendly pitches.
The off-spinner was also left out for their most recent pink-ball match, against West Indies in Jamaica.
“I don’t think he agreed with it, and that’s fine,” said Bailey. “I think Beau Webster’s in the same boat. That was heavily debated around Inglis and Webster, Neser and Webster,
“Nathan will disagree with the decision, and that’s perfectly okay. I think he disagreed with the decision in Jamaica, and that was perfectly okay.
“There’s no qualms about players feeling like they can impact the game and the fact of the matter is he could have.
“I think it’s just highlighted with ‘Gaz’ because there’s been years where he has managed his ability to bowl long spells, go at two an over, and hold things down, and it just hasn’t quite panned out that way (more recently).
“But when it suits and the time’s right, that will still be the case I imagine.”
Khawaja also hit the nets during the tea break on Thursday as he attempts to mount a recall case in his return from the back spasms that dogged him in Perth, and which he has not yet fully recovered from.
“He hadn’t got his back back to baseline and if you’re not back to the starting point then it’s obviously a heightened risk,” said Bailey.
“He very much felt, I guess it’s a guilt … when you’re injured and you feel like you let the team down, and I think that was something he was conscious of – if it happened again, it’d be an awful feeling.
“So sitting this one out buys time to get it right and build it out from there.”
2025-26 NRMA Insurance Men’s Ashes
First Test: Australia won by eight wickets
Second Test: December 4-8, The Gabba, Brisbane (D/N), 3pm AEDT
Third Test: December 17-21: Adelaide Oval, 10:30am AEDT
Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10:30am AEDT
Fifth Test: January 4-8: SCG, Sydney, 10:30am AEDT
Australia squad (second Test only): Steve Smith (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster
England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Harry Brook (vc), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Josh Tongue, Mark Wood
