Pat Cummins will feature in domestic cricket before leading Australia in the home Test series against India later this year.
The Aussie Test skipper could feature in the Sheffield Shield competition to fine-tune his preparation for the India series, slated to get underway on November 22 in Perth.
Cummins, who recently plied his trade in the Major League Cricket (MLC) in the USA, has been rested from Australia’s upcoming white-ball tour of Scotland and England. Instead, the right-arm pacer will spend time on strength and conditioning ahead of the home summer.
After hosting India in five Tests across seven weeks, Australia will travel to Sri Lanka to play two more Test matches.
The Border-Gavaskar Trophy and the Sri Lanka tour will determine whether Australia will have the chance to defend their WTC title at Lord’s next June. They are currently holding the second spot in the WTC standings, behind India
Australia are due to play Pakistan in an ODI series early November, and Cummins might use those three games for match practice ahead of the Test series against India.
“Ronnie [coach Andrew McDonald] called me the other day and said we need to talk about this,” Cummins told News Corp. “I prefer to go a little bit fresher but definitely play some cricket going in.
“So I’d say it’s either two or three ODIs, plus a Shield [game] or maybe just some Shield, maybe some NSW one-day stuff. I imagine kind of late October/early November will be when I start playing building up for the Tests.”
NSW play a Shield game against Victoria from October 20, followed by a match against Queensland from November 1.
Cummins has already said that missing the England tour was a thoughtful move as the next few months are about looking after the body for the upcoming workload, which will also include the Champions Trophy 2025 early next year.
“I’ll have a good six or eight weeks off bowling where I’ll get in the gym every day, do some running, and get some strength back into my body,” he said.
Other Australian quicks like Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood could also be available for New South Wales ahead of the international season. Nathan Lyon is likely to play at least two matches before the India series.
