BRISBANE: Pat Cummins has revealed a “big question mark” that held him back from playing in Brisbane and confirmed he will return for the third Test “barring any hiccups”.
There was speculation Australia’s regular captain may sneak into the Gabba XI despite having not been named in the squad, but the call was made to keep him on ice for the second Test in his recovery from a back stress injury.
He will all but certainly return in the Adelaide Test, beginning on December 17.
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“Should be right for Adelaide,” Cummins told Fox Cricket.
“I’ll have one more bowl tomorrow and then we’ll go to Adelaide and have another bowl there. Barring any hiccups, I’ll be good to go. The body feels great.”
Pat Cummins. Fox Cricket
The champion fast bowler said he was “relatively close” to returning in Brisbane.
“I’m bowling at 100 per cent,” Cummins added.
“The big question mark when coming back from a bone injury is we tend to have a bowl, have a couple of days off, recover, bowl, bowl. I haven’t done back-to-back bowls.
“One of the high-risk things going into a Test match is you’re going to be expected to bowl two days in a row, maybe three days in a row, and potentially quite a few overs.
“So we felt that was too risky. We started to kind of game plan a bit; could we try and maybe bowl maybe 20 overs, 25 overs? With Greeny [Cameron Green] in the side as an all-rounder we feel like we have lots of bowling.
“We tried to map out a way where I could play but it just felt a little bit too cute in the end, and didn’t really feel fair on the other bowlers, or even myself as a captain … It didn’t feel like the right Test match to take that risk, so we’ll kick it down the road a week.”
Brendan Doggett is likely to miss out if Cummins returns.
The fast bowler has impressed in his first two Tests for Australia and constantly stuck to the team’s game plan of short-pitched bowling, even if that’s not his speciality.
Doggett was joined in the pace attack by Michael Neser at the Gabba but chairman of selectors George Bailey has confirmed Nathan Lyon will return in Adelaide.
