LONDON, ENGLAND – JUNE 30: Pat Cummins of Australia looks on with a bruised eye after being hit by the ball while fielding yesterday during Day Three of the LV= Insurance Ashes 2nd Test match between England and Australia at Lord’s Cricket Ground on June 30, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
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After declaring pace war on Australia by naming five 90mph bowlers in their Ashes squad, England’s cricket team will be further encouraged by the news on Wednesday morning that Pat Cummins is set to miss the first Test at Perth on November 21. That’s the headline, but it could be more problematic.
There are fears that the Aussie skipper could be out for a large portion of the series with the lumbar back stress injury that flared up in the Caribbean in July. Cummins missed the white-ball ODI series against New Zealand and India last month with rehab the core mission.
The 32-year-old was plagued by back issues in the first half a dozen years of his international career from 2011, but the growing pains have now returned with a vengeance to disrupt the Baggy Greens’ best-laid plans to thwart England in their own backyard. That plan normally includes routine thrashings.
Cummins is central to this Australian team. Even when they are misfiring, as their batting unit often does these days, the fast bowler has a sense of peace and perspective that brings them over the line. In the opening Ashes Test in 2023 at Edgbaston, it was Cummins who kept calm with the bat when England looked odds-on to win the match.
In the recent Boxing Day Test against the Indians at the MCG, he scored 90 vital runs and took seven wickets to knock back any hopes of a series comeback for Rohit Sharma’s team.
It was originally hoped that the New South Wales player would be able to fit some Sheffield Shield cricket into his recovery schedule, given that the injury was more of a “hot spot” one than a fracture. The Age reported that recent scans have shown there isn’t enough progress to contemplate returning to action pre-Ashes. Former opening bat and coach Justin Langer has claimed that Cummins is “surprised” at the conjecture and that his former charge still aims to compete in a large part of the five Tests.
Australia will be looking towards the likes of Scott Boland, who certainly makes the most of his opportunities, as a replacement. The 36-year-old took 18 wickets in three matches across the 2021/22 Ashes series, and 21 wickets against India in three Tests.
Australia’s stranglehold over England in recent Ashes series has been predicated on their pace attack. The triumvirate of Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood has been too much to bear for the tourists, taking an aggregate of 53 wickets in the drawn 2023 series. Cummins and Starc shared 40 wickets in the 2021 encounter, while Hazlewood had to pull out early with an ankle injury.
Hazlewood has been prone to calf, side and shoulder injuries over the last year, and the home side will know they cannot afford to lose two main parts of that three-pronged attack. Previously, it has always been England who have come to battle with a blunt pitchfork.
When the starting gun goes this time, Ben Stokes’s team will feel it can fight and douse the opposition firepower. Whether Stokes can cope with the long haul of an intense Ashes series after so many knocks to his body armor will be telling too. Stokes and Cummins clearly love the battle and the series needs them as leaders and main men.
LONDON, ENGLAND – JULY 31: Pat Cummins of Australia and Ben Stokes of England pose with the Ashes Trophy following Day Five of the LV= Insurance Ashes 5th Test Match between England and Australia at The Kia Oval on July 31, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
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Australia’s problems don’t end at the tail end of their team. Usman Khawaja, who is hardly in stunning form at the top of the order, needs a partner. Despite a feisty debut against India, Sam Konstas’ star has waned for now.
Steve Smith, Nathan McSweeney and the jettisoned Marnus Labuschagne have all been tried at the top of the tree, but none of them have looked like forming a solid partnership with Khawaja. Matt Renshaw has been called into the ODI squad for the five-match series against India, perhaps as another trial run for the longer format. Renshaw has a modest Test average of 29 and has never played an Ashes series.
The fact remains that Australia are a different animal on their own patch. England can make all the right noises, but they have been destroyed down under to the tune of 13 Tests to nil over the course of the last three series. Brendon McCullum and Stokes like running towards the danger. There may just be less of it now in Cummins’ absence.