After his brilliant hit-and-run Ashes performance in Adelaide, Australia’s Test and ODI captain Pat Cummins will cool his heels while he prepares for the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka in February of next year.
Due to a lower-back injury sustained on the West Indies trip in June and July, Cummins missed the first two Ashes Tests. However, he made a fantastic comeback in the third game in Adelaide, taking six wickets in the series-clinching victory.
Australia chose to exclude Cummins from the final two Test matches having retained the Ashes urn. Cummins, 32, announced on Friday that he will now relax before focusing on the T20 World Cup, which gets underway in early February.
“Feeling good, so got through Adelaide unscathed so pretty happy,” he told Channel 7 during the lunch break on the first day of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.
“As of a few weeks ago, was still coming back from a back injury so playing back-to-back Test matches was pretty high risk. Cool our heels for a little bit with T20 World Cup next month,” Cummins added.
He expressed confidence Following coach Andrew McDonald’s statement earlier this week that Cummins was uncertain for Australia’s T20 World Cup campaign.
Australia’s opening game is against Ireland in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on February 11. All-rounder Mitch Marsh leads Australia in the shortest format, while Cummins captains the Test and ODI squads.
Cummins added that veteran spinner Nathan Lyon will have to miss a significant amount of time due to hamstring surgery. On the last day of the Adelaide Test, Lyon sustained the injury and underwent surgery right away.
Lyon will have plenty of time to recuperate as Australia’s next Test match following the Ashes isn’t scheduled until August.
“He had surgery a couple of days ago, so he’ll have a lengthy layoff, I don’t know exactly, but will be at least a few months,” Cummins said.
“Bit of a long road ahead for him, but he’s done it before so hopefully he’ll be back. It was a big one, so surgery, and he has his crutches in the change room at the moment so we wish best … it was a shame but he put a brave face after the Test.”
