The Ashes: Australia spearhead Pat Cummins wants to play all five Tests
Plenty of competition with Starc, Hazzlewood raring to go against England
London: Australia paceman Pat Cummins wants to play all five matches in the Ashes series and is looking forward to rejoining the fray in his first Test at Lord’s on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old took four for 32 in England’s second innings at Edgbaston as Australia romped to a 251-run victory in the first Test — his maiden away outing in cricket’s oldest international rivalry.
With Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc chomping at the bit after missing out on the opener, Australia are not short on pace-bowling options but Cummins is keen to retain the spearhead role.
“Personally, I’ll be hoping to play every game, and if I’m fully fit and bowling well I expect to, but it’s good we’ve got plenty of bowlers here,” Cummins told reporters in London.
“I came in pretty fresh for [the first] Test match and luckily we had a big break, so I knew that was the carrot at the end of the game that we were going to get 10 days off, so it was pretty easy to tear in that last day.
“I feel really good, I haven’t really done much in the last few days and just built up nicely. I feel 100 per cent.”
Cummins has received conflicting advice about which end is best to bowl from at Lord’s, which famously has a slight slope, but said he had not noticed much difference when he played at the famous old ground in one-dayers.
The top-ranked Test bowler in the world at the moment, Cummins will again be hoping to fire down the opening ball in England’s first innings.
And worryingly for the hosts, who must win the series to reclaim the Ashes, he is sure he can do better than the 3-84 he managed in England’s first innings in Birmingham two weeks ago.
“I felt like with each spell I got a little bit better and better,” he added.
“I haven’t played a lot of red ball coming into the first day’s play, and I think just trying to find that tempo of Test cricket, it’s slightly different to white ball.
“I think mixed into that the excitement and the nerves of first spell in Ashes over here. I was pretty pumped up ...
“Definitely by the end of the game, I felt a lot better than that first spell.”