Australia cricket captain Pat Cummins cleared of stress fractures, but hot spots require careful management before Ashes series

Depending on the seriousness of Cummins’ back trouble, he may miss all the white-ball games that precede the first Ashes Test in Perth in late November, and could also need to avoid playing a Sheffield Shield game for New South Wales. As it is, he will be missing from the Twenty20 squad that will on Tuesday be named to tour New Zealand.

However Cummins is likely to be fit for the start of the Ashes Tests against Ben Stokes’ team, having undergone a similar lead-up to home summers before, most recently last season’s games against India.

The Australians have Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Boland in their front rank of pace bowlers, and since 2023 have shown an increasing willingness to use all of them over the course of a series.

Steve Smith is also in the wings as a capable on-field leader should Cummins need to miss a game or two during the summer – as he did during the 2021-22 Ashes when a COVID-19 scare ruled him out of the Adelaide Test.

Cummins has been in a “de-load” phase since the Caribbean, not bowling at all, but still doing plenty of strength work in the gym.

It is not uncommon for scans to show stress hot spots in the backs of Australia’s big three fast bowlers at the end of a gruelling Test series, leading to careful management of their return to play.

However there may be some concern among Australia’s selectors and medical staff about the prospect of Cummins pulling up sore after a tour in which he bowled relatively few overs, particularly during the West Indies leg on a trio of lively pitches.

Cummins bowled a total of 85.1 overs across the four Tests on the tour, starting with the World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord’s.

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By comparison, he had powered through 167 overs in four Tests against India at home last summer, in the same series that saw Jasprit Bumrah break down with his own back trouble. Cummins’ biggest bowling shift was the 211 overs he sent down on the 2019 Ashes tour of England.

Sam Konstas, meanwhile, has struck his first blow in the fight to hang onto his Test place at the top of the order, carving out a century in a NSW City versus Country practice match in Sydney.

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