Australia Test captain Pat Cummins will be not playing in Sheffield Shield before the start of the test summer as Australia’s captain manages his workload ahead of the BGT.
Cummins will skip the white ball series against England and Scotland, after spending two months at home between February and July.
“I’ve got those ODIs, aiming to absolutely be part of that series,” Cummins said. “I would say at least a NSW one-day game, if not a Shield game, before the ODIs.
“The priority at the moment is to smash out some gym work and start reassessing in a few weeks a path forward. I’m just trying to fill up the bucket again after two years of non-stop bowling. (Hoping) come that first Test in as good of a position as I have been in for a few years.”
Cummins said that his decision on playing IPL and MLC is not the case of club versus country.
“This was an interesting year in this gap leading into the summer was always planned,” Cummins said. “MLC popped up late, and when we were talking through the schedule didn’t change the prep leading into the summer.”
It is expected workloads will become crucial this summer as the highly anticipated Border Gavaskar Trophy stretches to five tests for the first time. Australia will be traveling to Sri Lanka for a test series.
But he has predicted both Cameron Green and Mitch Marsh’s inclusion for the series. Green and Marsh who bowled only 24 and 25 overs respectively last summer across five tests, but the test captain expects that will change in the series against India.
“We haven’t had to use them as much as we thought we would, which is a great thing,” Cummins said. The last couple of summers have been pretty light, quick Test matches.”
“I suspect this summer might be a bit different at times. We’ll be drawing on Cam Green and Mitch Marsh a bit more. Even someone like Cam Green basically started in Shield cricket as a bowler but hasn’t had to bowl heaps in Test matches.
“We’re really lucky Nathan Lyon bowls plenty of overs, so you don’t necessarily have to have an allrounder. But it makes a big difference to have that fifth bowling option. We have six,” concluded Cummins.
The first test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2025 will begin on November 22 at Optus Stadium.
