Pat Cummins, the Australian Test captain is ready to return to play Sheffield Shield before the blockbuster Test series against India that starts on November 22 at the Optus Stadium in Perth. The right-arm quick said he would also participate in some one-day games for New South Wales to enable him to prepare for a busy summer.
The 31-year-old has not played Sheffield Shield since February 2021 but will need a few red-ball matches before India arrive because Australia have not played Test cricket since March 2024. Therefore, Cricket Australia made it possible for the domestic red-ball competition to start on October 8.
In an interview with News Corp, Cummins acknowledged that there is need for balance between being prepared and going in fresh when they take on India as Australia try to reclaim Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
“Ronnie [coach Andrew McDonald] called me the other day and said we need to talk about this,” he said. “I prefer to go a little bit fresher but definitely play some cricket going in.”
”So I’d say it’s either two or three ODIs, plus a Shield [game] or maybe just some Shield, maybe some NSW one-day stuff. I imagine kind of late October/early November will be when I start playing building up for the Tests.”
The white-ball tour to England and Scotland is without Cummins since he is focusing on his strength and conditioning. Recently, he was playing for the San Francisco Unicorns in the Major League Cricket (MLC) in the USA who made it to the finals.
“I’ll work out daily, run, and regain my strength”- Pat Cummins on preparing for the India series
Cummins mentioned about it while speaking to ESPN Cricinfo in July, that he had long since planned to evade the white-ball tour which goes through Scotland and England as it was time for him to regroup. He further added:
“That window has always been earmarked as a time to really give my body a rest and do close to a full pre-season. I should get six or eight weeks off bowling and then build up again. Once this MLC opportunity came up and we mapped out the plan, it didn’t really change much.”
“I’ll get home, I’ll have a good six or eight weeks off bowling where I’ll get in the gym every day, do some running, and get some strength back into my body. And then we’ve got a big Test match series [against India] for our home summer, so that’ll be the focus.”
The 31-year-old was the leading wicket-taker (21) in the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Australia.
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