Pat Cummins ruled out of first Ashes Test in Perth

As Pat Cummins’ place in Ashes plans became clearer, Australia’s selectors added the familiar name of Mitch Marsh to their mix against Ben Stokes’ aggressive Englishmen.

Cummins was ruled out of the first Test on Monday but coach Andrew McDonald expressed optimism that the Test captain would be fit for the second, at the Gabba.

Marsh has lately been terrorising opposition attacks in his role as white-ball captain, with 501 runs at 83.5 across the past nine international games.

His strengths against high pace and short bowling were underlined by a thudding century against Mark Wood at Headingley during the 2023 Ashes series. There is also the fact that Marsh’s Test record against England is truly imposing - 659 runs at 47.07 with all three of his hundreds.

Head coach Andrew McDonald was eager to talk up Marsh’s prospects on Monday, especially as a reinforcement option, should Australia need extra batting firepower in an undulating series.

Loading

“We would be comfortable picking someone, and if you want to put a name to it, Mitch Marsh, out of white ball cricket if we felt like that was going to benefit the Test team,” McDonald said in Canberra.

“We feel he’s batting as well as he has for a long period of time. And when he got dropped last summer, I think he was one of our highest averages from his reintroduction during the Ashes 2023, at Headingley to that point, he was going really well.

“He hit a bit of a flat patch there, and we felt the best at that time to bring Beau Webster in, and we still haven’t given up on Mitch Marsh’s Test career.”

Marsh has been dismissive when questioned about his prospects of a return to the Test team when questioned about it recently.

While McDonald admitted that it would be difficult for Marsh to fit Test match preparation into his current duties as white ball skipper, there is also room in the calendar for him to play Sheffield Shield cricket before the Big Bash League.

“So what would the prep look like?” McDonald said. “It would have to be through white ball, or maybe some Shield cricket after white ball, if he isn’t in that first squad, and then can press his claim through that.

“There’s Shield [rounds] five and six when we’re playing the Test matches, where players that aren’t in the first Test will obviously go to work.

Cummins has resumed running but is yet to return to the bowling crease after pulling up sore on the Test tour of the Caribbean in July, leaving insufficient time for him to be fit to bowl in Perth.

McDonald said on Monday that he was expecting Cummins to resume bowling this week. The selectors are hopeful that he may be available for the second Test of the series, a day/night game in Brisbane that starts on December 4, five-and-a-half weeks from now.

“We’ve grappled with it for a little while,” McDonald said. “We’ve run out of time [for Perth] unfortunately, but we’re optimistic about the second Test match. What’s the timeframe? Not really able to answer that other than to say he’ll be back bowling this week, and that’s a huge step.

“Losing your captain is not ideal, but when you talk about Scott Boland being the potential replacement, it’s not a bad position to be in. Ideally you want the captain available.”

The skipper was asked two weeks ago about his back injury and said he would normally want a month of bowling to be right for a Test.

“You want at least a month in the nets getting used to it,” Cummins said. “If you’re going to play a Test match you want to make sure you’re right to bowl 20 overs a day and you don’t have to really think about it. Four weeks is pretty tight, but somewhere around that mark.”

Loading

Cummins has been running most days at Cricket NSW headquarters at Sydney Olympic Park as he works to get his body right. For now, there is no firm date on when he’ll resume bowling.

Cummins’ absence from the first Test means Boland is almost certain to take his place in Australia’s XI alongside fellow fast bowlers Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood. Boland has never played the first Test of a home summer since debuting against England four years ago in Melbourne.

Click here to read article