Perth: Coach Andrew McDonald told reporters that skipper Pat Cummins “looked like a player nearing the completion of his rehabilitation” after a powerful spell of bowling on the Perth pitch. He added that whether Cummins will feature in the second Ashes Test in Brisbane will be decided much later.
Because Cummins wrapped up early in Perth, he won’t start his next bowling session until Tuesday instead of Monday as he continues his recovery from a lower‑back stress injury. The Australian selectors will convene soon to evaluate his fitness, taking care to time his return appropriately.
If Cummins is fit for the full five days in Brisbane, there will still be an eight‑day interval before the third Test in Adelaide. “Once we see him again we’ll be able to then join the dots as to what that potentially looks like. But for those who saw him in Perth, I did say this a while back that he’ll be up and bowling…and people will be sitting there questioning why he’s not playing,” McDonald explained.
McDonald highlighted the positives in Cummins’ performance: “It looked like a player that was nearing the completion of his rehabilitation. The intensity was there, the ball speed was there. There’s a lot of positives, but now it’s just really building that resilience within the soft tissue and making sure that we’re not putting him in harm’s way in terms of accelerating it too much.”
He added that the conversation around Cummins’ inclusion will unfold as the Test approaches, noting that the situation is “nearing completion, which is really, really positive.” “That will be a genuine discussion leading into this Test match. That may be one that eventuates late for us. A little bit to work through but it’s nearing completion, which is really, really positive,” McDonald said on Monday.
Meanwhile, fast bowler Josh Hazlewood is in the first week of rehab for a low‑grade hamstring injury. McDonald declined to set a timetable for Hazlewood’s return and noted that the bowler will join the squad in Brisbane to continue his recovery. “He’s working through the first week of his rehab. I’m not sure that we need to give an update on that. Once he gets further down the track and we have some rough timelines, then we’ll be in a position to communicate that,” the coach said.
“I know that he’ll be available at some point during the series. We’ve got a little bit of that early rehab to go through to formulate where he may plug into the series, but we expect him to take some part in the series.” “I know that he’ll be available at some point during the series, and once again, we’re not going to put our medical team into a scenario where we identify a game and then the speculation starts around that,” McDonald added.
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