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Australia Test captain Pat Cummins is expected to play a key role in the side's upcoming five-match assignment against arch-rivals England. However, there are still questions over his participation in the series as the pacer is currently recovering from a lumbar bone stress injury and there is no guarantee as to when he will make his return to international cricket.
Notably, Cummins recently got ruled out of Australia's upcoming white-ball series against New Zealand and India. He is yet to feature in an international match since his appearance in the third and final Test of the series against West Indies in July. It will be a big setback for the Baggy Greens even if Cummins ends up missing 1-2 matches against England.
Australia head coach Andrew McDonald has now given an update on Cummins' injury and has stated that even though the latter still has some fitness issues, he will likely be playing a 'significant' role in the Ashes series.
"It's not ideal. I'm not going to sit here and say that it's ideal. He does have a lumbar bone stress issue there. So he'll just work through what his return to play looks like. We're confident that he's going to partake in The Ashes, I think to sensationalise that he's not would be an overreaction," McDonald told SEN Radio.
"If it happened any closer then you'd have to be making sort of key decisions around what it all looks like, but we have got time. There's a lot more information to come and I think everyone will probably live through that with the footage of him training and when he re-enters around the group. We look forward to our captain taking a significant part in The Ashes," he added.
Smith to captain in place of Cummins
McDonald also shared that if by chance Cummins does get sidelined for one or two Tests against England, then Steve Smith will likely be the one to replace him as the side's skipper as the latter has got a lot of experience in the role.
"Steve Smith's got a lot of captaincy experience. We haven't really got to that conversation yet because there's no finality or timeline on Patty," Mcdonald stated.
"I'm just thinking out loud here, I think Steve's done it five or six times in the absence of Pat, so that would be an obvious person to step in, and we'd have great confidence in him," he added.
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Meanwhile, the highly-important Ashes series between Australia and England is set to commence from November 21. The first Test of the red-ball assignment will be played at the Optus stadium in Perth.
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