Cummins to skip Perth T20I to tune up for Tests
Last updated on: 07 November,2019 04:27 am
Cummins will skip third T20 to get some red-ball practice ahead of two-Test series against Pakistan.
PERTH (Agencies) - Australia’s unbending rotation policy has come to the fore again, with Pat Cummins, their pace spearhead, set to give the final Twenty 20 international against Pakistan a miss, to recuperate and get some red-ball practice ahead of the two-Test series against the same opposition.
Cummins did not travel with the rest of the squad to Perth, the venue of the final T20I, and instead headed to Sydney, where he is set to turn out for his state side New South Wales in the next round of Sheffield Shield games, which starts on 11 November.
"It s a little bit of recovery and preparing for the Test match," Justin Langer, Australia’s head coach, said. "We ve got so much cricket on and he plays a lot of it, so we ve got the opportunity for him not to take the long flight to Perth."
Australia’s policy of rest and rotation has been the subject of much discussion over the course of this year. It led to Josh Hazlewood, one of their main trio of pacers in Test cricket, being left out of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 in England and Wales, after he suffered a back injury following the Sydney Test against India in January.
More recently, the policy led to Mitchell Starc sitting out of four of the five Ashes Tests in England, where Australia famously retained the urn.
Cummins, surprisingly, played all five Tests in that series, despite earlier indications from Langer of the unlikelihood of that happening. He has since remained busy, playing in all five of Australia’s T20Is to kickstart their home summer.
"In the past, we have used these opportunities to rest some of those guys," Langer said. "But we need to get better at it, it s something that is a priority for Australian cricket. So therefore, you want to play your best players as often as you can.
"We re playing a really good defensive game. In T20, I ve thought for seven or eight years that how you re bowling unit plays and how you field is really important. We re working to build all our bowling stocks so they are able to do those jobs for us. We re really lucky, we ve got great depth of squad."