Cummins fitness entering to uncertain territory with return before the first Test at Perth looking doubtful.
With just over six weeks till the first ball of the series in Perth, Pat Cummins has not yet been approved to bowl, making his prospects of being fit for the first Ashes Test dwindling by the day.
According to reports from News Limited and Nine newspapers on Wednesday, Cummins’ most recent scan revealed some improvement in his lower back’s lumbar bone stress problem, but not enough to allow him to resume bowling.
Cricket Australia has not commented, but Cummins’ recovery is still going strong, and no decisions have been made on the captain’s participation in the first Test or the entire Ashes series or when he will be ready to bowl again.
Since Australia’s most recent Test match in Jamaica in July, Cummins has not bowled a ball. Cummins stated that he was “willing to take a few risks and be a little bit aggressive” to play in the Ashes, which included skipping any white or red-ball lead-up games, shortly after the lumbar problem was made public in early September.
But the timeline to build his bowling loads adequately to play in Perth, even with some associated risk, have become tighter than would normally be acceptable for CA’s medical and high performance staff.