Early Injury Scare put Ashes participation in Doubt

Pat Cummins has revealed how close he came to missing the entire Ashes series as he gets set to return from a back injury and lead Australia in Wednesday’s third Test at the Adelaide Oval.

The Australia captain has not played a competitive match for five months after being sidelined with what Cricket Australia (CA) described as a “lumbar bone stress” injury in his lower back. Speaking on Tuesday, Cummins admitted he had experienced soreness during his most recent Test appearance against the West Indies at Sabina Park in July.

Initially considered a doubt for the full Ashes series, Cummins completed what he described as an “aggressive” rehabilitation programme without any setbacks. He was even in contention for the second Test at the Gabba but will instead make his return in Adelaide, replacing Steven Smith as captain and with no restrictions on the number of overs he can bowl.

Trust in medical staff is key to a comeback

Cummins’ history of lower-back injuries stretches back to his late teens and early 20s, a period that forced him to wait five-and-a-half years between his first and second Test caps. He said years of working with CA’s medical team had helped him develop “complete trust” in their guidance, while acknowledging that any disruption to his recovery would have ended his Ashes campaign.

"I'm good to go," Cummins said after Australia’s final pre-match training session. "I've been bowling [at] 100% for a while. If I'd played in Brisbane, I would probably have been in limited overs. But this week, it's just 'go and play' like any other Test match.

"The medical staff are the leading experts in this around the world. They see more of these injuries than anyone else, and I have complete trust in them. That's probably the most comforting part.

"I know I got asked a million times in the off-season, 'Are you going to play?'. I genuinely didn't know. As long as everything was tracked well, I would be in this position, but we also knew that you've got to tread lightly around some of these injuries, and if there was a flare-up or a setback, I wouldn't have played. We wouldn't have risked it.

"I feel like I've been really well managed and well supported, and we've all been pretty open-minded, the medical staff, coaches, and myself, and luckily, things have played out pretty well."

Australia confident despite packed schedule and injury risks

Despite returning after a shorter-than-usual rehabilitation period, Cummins said he was confident in his fitness. He revealed that the initial discomfort surfaced during the Jamaica Test in July, where he did not bowl in the second innings that lasted just 14.3 overs.

"I first felt it in the West Indies," Cummins said. "Second innings, Jamaica, things happened pretty quickly, and I was pretty happy not to bowl there: I was feeling a bit sore. I got an initial scan, which showed something potentially brewing, but a lot of these times, the next scan shows a bit more, and four weeks later, I had another scan that looked a bit more serious.

"We know the pathway that you need to follow to come back from a stress injury like that. I had 16 weeks completely off bowling, make sure the bone heals really well, looking good, and then from there it's ramping up. You normally try to ramp up - the medical staff will probably tell me I've got this completely wrong - maybe over three or four months.

"That would obviously have meant that I missed the Ashes, so we set a pretty aggressive plan to get up in six or seven weeks. I haven't had any hiccups, I'm feeling great, feeling probably better than I would have thought. The back's healed well, so here we are."

England captain Ben Stokes said Cummins’ return would not prompt a change in England’s approach. "I won't be paying too much attention to the fact that Pat's not played since July and try to use that as something to go at," he said.

Australia is 2-0 up in the series despite Cummins missing the opening two Tests and Josh Hazlewood being ruled out with hamstring and Achilles injuries. With the final three Tests scheduled back-to-back and only four rest days between matches, Cummins may not feature in all remaining games.

However, Australia has Michael Neser and Brendan Doggett rested and available, while Jhye Richardson has been training with the squad as he continues his return from shoulder surgery.

"It's incredible. It shows great depth in the Aussie cricket system at the moment with fast bowlers," Cummins said. "It's almost worked out perfectly. We're halfway through a series. I've come back online, you've got Ness [Neser] and Doggy [Doggett] who are resting from this week, but obviously got themselves into the series and are available for the last two games.

"We've seen Jhye Richardson out the back bowling, so it feels like everything has come together and we're not just hanging on to the end of the series like sometimes you are. We're actually peaking, and [will] hopefully have heaps of resources available.

"The guys who have stepped in have been fantastic. I think it's a huge credit to those guys that have stepped in, but also the coaches, and Steve [Smith] managing them throughout the game."