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Australia boss casts doubt on Pat Cummins’ ability to play full role in Ashes

The series gets under way in Perth on November 21.

By contributor Rory Dollard, PA Cricket Correspondent
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Supporting image for story: Australia boss casts doubt on Pat Cummins’ ability to play full role in Ashes
Australia captain Pat Cummins faces a race to be fit for the Ashes (Ben Whitley/PA).

Australia captain Pat Cummins may not be fit enough to play a full part in this winter’s Ashes, with head coach Andrew McDonald admitting his recent back problems are “not ideal”.

Cummins is integral to his side’s hopes against England, both as leader of the team and the pace attack, but is currently sidelined with back problems.

McDonald is trying to remain optimistic about his skipper’s prospects but stopped short of predicting he would be able to line up in all five games, with the series kicking off in Perth on November 21.

Australia’s Pat Cummins (left) and England’s Ben Stokes pose for a photo with The Ashes urn prior to day one of the first Ashes test match at Edgbaston.
Australia captain Pat Cummins (left) is not a certainty to be fit for all five Ashes Tests (Stu Forster/PA)

Instead, McDonald appears to be banking on the seamer to make a big impact whenever he is ready to take the field.

“It’s not ideal. I’m not going to sit here and say that it’s ideal. He does have a lumbar bone stress issue there. So he’ll just work through what his return to play looks like,” McDonald told SEN Radio.

“We’re confident that he’s going to partake in the Ashes, I think to sensationalise that he’s not would be an overreaction.

“If it happened any closer then you’d have to be making sort of key decisions around what it all looks like, but we have got time.

“There’s a lot more information to come and I think everyone will probably live through that with the footage of him training and when he re-enters around the group.

Australia's Steve Smith takes questions at a press conference.
Former captain Steve Smith is ready to take over captaincy duties if needed (Ben Whitley/PA)

“We look forward to our captain taking a significant part in the Ashes.”

Scott Boland has been the long-standing first reserve for the ‘big three’ quicks – Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood – while Steve Smith is already primed to step in as skipper if required.

“Steve Smith’s got a lot of captaincy experience. We haven’t really got to that conversation yet because there’s no finality or timeline on Patty,” McDonald added.

“I’m just thinking out loud here, I think Steve’s done it five or six times in the absence of Pat, so that would be an obvious person to step in, and we’d have great confidence in him.”