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Pat Cummins, the captain of Australia, got ruled out of the upcoming white-ball series against New Zealand and India in October after suffering a back injury. Following the recent scans on his back revealing lumbar bone stress, the 32-year-old is racing against time to be fit for the first Test of the five-match home Ashes series against England, starting on November 21, at the Optus Stadium in Perth, but he spoke about “willing to take a few risks” in rehab to be a part of it.
After competing in the three-match Test series against West Indies in the Caribbean a couple of months ago, which Australia won 3-0, Pat Cummins has just been doing some light gym work as reported by BBC Sport. With the question marks around his fitness being quite stark, he said, “I'm never going to go into a Test match unless I think I can finish the Test match.”
“But when you're 18 or 19, you're like, 'let's make sure this is the perfect rehab, whether it takes an extra six months'. Whereas, I'm happy to be a bit like, 'well, it's an Ashes series, whatever it takes to play it. Then, say, at the end, if you're still not 100% and you need to have a bit of a break next year, there's not another Ashes series,” remarked Pat Cummins, indicating how his thought process around rehabilitation has changed drastically over the years.
Pat Cummins missed nearly five years of international cricket due to back injury at one point
It is important to note that the Australian fast bowler had to sit out from international cricket for five years after debuting in Test cricket as a teenager in 2011, due to suffering multiple back injuries at the time. After his return to international cricket in 2016, Pat Cummins has managed to establish himself as one of the best fast bowlers in the world with consistent performances across all formats apart from his exploits in franchise cricket.
While talking about his course of action as far as the current back injury is concerned, Pat Cummins stated, “You're willing to take a few risks and be a little bit aggressive to try and play as many Tests as you can," he added. I'm pretty confident even if I don't get a chance to play a [Sheffield] Shield game, I can get up to speed pretty quickly. I'm still doing a bit of gym work, but no real running, no bowling. Get that right and then we'll build up to the summer. We've got loads of time, there's about 12 weeks until the first Test. We'll see how the next little bit pans out.”
