Australia's Pat Cummins is back to bowling in the nets in an attempt to regain fitness ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 followed by the all-important World Test Championship (WTC) final against Temba Bavuma's South Africa. Cummins missed the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 due to an ankle injury he sustained during the fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. Cummins believes he will be fine by the time IPL 2025 begins.
"The ankle is all going strong, [have been] able to give it a good rest and then been building up slowly, which you don't get to do when you play lots of cricket," Cummins told ESPNCricinfo. "It's feeling as strong as it has for a fair while. Should be fine [for the IPL], that's the plan. So have a few weeks of bowling, building back up and then hopefully don't have to worry about it for a while."
Cummins said that he has been struggling with his ankle and welcomed the break to do rehabilitation as he is not in favour of going under the knife.
"It's something that we've opted never to have surgery on or intervene too much, just a lot to rehab. Having this break meant that I could get a couple of cortisones and really rehab it well the last couple of weeks."
Cummins to miss four white-ball series in lead up to Ashes
While Cummins will have little over two weeks between IPL and WTC final, he is set to miss five-T20I series against West Indies followed by other white-ball series against South Africa, New Zealand and India to keep himself fresh for the Ashes 2025-26 at home. He feels it has become a norm to give importance to big events.
"Sometimes by missing the odd tour, you actually end up playing more cricket for the whole year," the 31-year-old said. "I think in the past you used to play everything, whereas now, absolutely, you try and make sure the players are at their peak for as long as you can for the year and to play as much of the important stuff each year. It's just the way of the world. Everyone's used to it."
In Cummins' absence, Steve Smith is leading Australia in the Champions Trophy 2025. Australia started their campaign with a record-breaking run chase against England. Their second match against South Africa was washed out due to rain.