Australia still expect Pat Cummins to be available for the first Ashes Test, even as the captain deals with stress in his back.
The star quick will miss upcoming white-ball series against New Zealand and India due to lumbar bone stress.
Cummins will be racing the clock to be fit for Australia’s opening Test in Perth against England, starting on November 21.
But chairman of selectors George Bailey has backed Cummins to lead Australia out at Optus Stadium to begin the defence of the urn.
“There still feels like there’s plenty of time,” Bailey said, referencing 80 days until the Ashes starts.
“On the back of the scan, there’ll just be continued rehab and monitoring around that.
“Full expectation that Pat would be right to go come the first Test.”
Bailey also said he would be unfazed if Cummins wasn’t able to feature in any of the Sheffield Shield games.
It would mean the prolific fast bowler might enter a chaotic period of five Tests in six weeks having not played a match for more than four months.
After experiencing a raft of back injuries earlier in his career, Cummins has carefully managed his body since and often prefers to be “underdone” heading into big series.
“He’s one, certainly skill wise, that he has entered summers at different stages without a great amount of match balls at different times,” Bailey said.
“If it got to the stage where they (Shield games) were taken off the table, I still think that we’d be comfortable with Pat’s experience and skill level and the ability for him.
“This probably slows him down from when he actually commences bowling again … I’m pretty confident that it’ll work out.”
If Cummins isn’t fit, Australia have captaincy and bowling options to cover him.
Scott Boland would almost certainly be called into the pace attack, with the Victorian spectacularly taking a hat-trick in Australia’s previous Test against West Indies in July.
Those matches – all at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui – clash with the start of the Sheffield Shield.
But batting allrounder Cameron Green, coming off a maiden ODI century last month, will play for Western Australia instead of flying across the Tasman.
AUSTRALIA’S T20 SQUAD:
Mitchell Marsh (capt), Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matt Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Mitch Owen, Matthew Short, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa.
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