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Australia captain Pat Cummins will miss the white-ball series against South Africa to focus on fitness for the Ashes.
Pat Cummins will miss Australia’s series against South Africa (Picture credit: AP)
Australia captain Pat Cummins will skip the team’s white-ball series against South Africa next month to build up his fitness towards the winter Ashes against England. He said he’ll not bowl much in the next two months but will do ‘lots of gym work’ to get some things right in his body.
Australia will play three ODIs and as many T20Is against the Proteas, to whom they recently lost the World Test Championship 2023-25 Final. The skipper will aim to come back for three T20Is against New Zealand in October, while also playing a part in the eight-match white-ball home series against India and potentially even a Sheffield Shield match for New South Wales.
“I’ll have a good training block for the next couple of months, six weeks or so,” Cummins told reporters at Sabina Park, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo. “Probably not bowling, but lots of gym work. [My] body feels pretty good, but there’s always little bits and pieces you’re always trying to get right and then build up for the summer. So it’ll probably look like white-ball [cricket]…we’ve got some [matches against] New Zealand, India, potentially a Shield game and then into the home summer,” he added.
Australia still have a dead-rubber Test to go against the West Indies in their ongoing three-match tour. Cummins noted its importance in helping the team settle a few spots in the playing 11, like at the top of the order amid form concerns for Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas and Cameron Green.
“There’s a lot of Shield cricket to come and some Aussie A stuff as well,” Cummins said. “I think [if] you do well at Test level, any time it’s going to kind of make your case more compelling. I think there’s a bit of a connection to the summer, but it feels a long way away at the moment,” he added.
Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Travis Head were already rested from the five-T20I series against the West Indies that’ll follow the Tests. Josh Hazlewood will also join them now, with Xavier Bartlett named his replacement.
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A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses, features, live scores, results, stats and everything that’s cricket from all over the globe. Follow @cricketnext
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