Pat Cummins Eyes Adelaide Comeback As Australia Captain Gears Up for Third Ashes Test vs England

Brisbane [Australia]: Australian captain Pat Cummins feels confident about returning for the upcoming third Ashes Test in Adelaide. Cummins also revealed how close he was to playing in Brisbane against England.

The 32-year-old Cummins was ruled out of the first two Test matches against Ben Stokes-led England in the ongoing Ashes. The Australian speedster failed to recover on time from his back injury.

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After missing out on the first two games in the Ashes, Cummins was spotted bowling at the nets. The right-arm pacer had lengthy nets in Brisbane. Speaking to Fox Cricket during the second session on Day 3 of the Brisbane Test, Cummins confirmed that he would make a return during the third Test in Adelaide Oval, starting December 17.

"First of all, yeah, I should be right for Adelaide. "So, I'll have one more bowl tomorrow (Sunday), and then we'll go to Adelaide and have another bowl there. So, barring any hiccups, I'll be good to go. Body feels great." Cummins said to Fox Cricket.

Cummins also opened up about how close he was to playing in the second Ashes Test in Brisbane. The pacer replied, “Relatively close, really.”

Cummins continued and said, “Body feels great, I'm bowling at 100 per cent. The big question mark when coming back from a bone injury is we tend to have a bowl and have a couple of days off, recover, bowl, bowl. I haven't done back-to-back bowls, so one of the high-risk things going into a Test match is you're going to be expected to bowl two days in a row, maybe three days in a row, and potentially quite a few overs.”

The Australian speedster also revealed the deciding factor in not making an earlier return.

"So, we felt that (not doing back-to-back bowls yet) was too risky; we started to kind of game plan (for reduced overs) -- could we try and maybe bowl 20 overs, 25 overs with 'Greeny' in the side as an all-rounder?" Cummins continued.

"We feel like we've got lots of bowling. So, we really tried to map out a way where I could play, but it just felt a little bit too cute in the end. And it didn't really feel fair on the other bowlers, or even on myself as a captain. If I had to have a bowler that I was bowling and trying to work out which overs, it didn't quite feel right. It didn't feel like the right Test match to take that risk," the Australian captain said.

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Australia are leading the five-match Ashes Test series 1-0. The hosts won the opening Test in Perth by eight wickets after Travis Head scored a match-winning century while chasing a target of 205 runs against England.