Cummins ruled out of first Ashes Test

Steve Smith will take the starting Ashes Test in his absence, and Australia have confirmed that captain Pat Cummins won’t be fit.

Cummins, a talismanic fast bowler, has been out for a while and earlier this month declared he was “less than likely” to play in the first Test against Perth on November 21.

With the series opener less than a month away, Cricket Australia announced on Sunday that the 32-year-old has not yet played since July and has not yet returned to bowling.

Cummins is anticipated to be able to bowl “shortly,” with the goal of being ready for the second Test in Brisbane, which will start on December 4.

Australia’s renowned fast bowler and captain are losing a significant amount of money.

Cummins was initially ruled out of the white-ball series against India and New Zealand because of reports of a lumbar stress fracture.

Cummins claimed time was starting to get “tight” for the first Test because he needed at least a month to practice for the match-fit test two weeks prior.

Cummins was named captain just before the final Ashes series against Australia in 2021-22. Despite having to miss the second Test due to a Covid scare, the home side won 4-0.

Smith is a more than capable replacement for the captaincy.

The 36-year-old is the Ashes-winning skipper, and the “sandpapergate” ball-tampering scandal cost him the captaincy in 2018. He only lost the captaincy in 2018 as a result.

The batter, who has been a top Ashes run-scorer all-time, has six previous starts in place of Cummins as captain.

Scott Boland, who has a peerless average of 12.63 in Tests in Australia, is likely to take Cummins’ place in the bowling attack.

In a seam attack for the exhausting five-Test series that was squeezed into just over seven weeks, Boland, 36, is likely to join Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, both of whom are in their mid-30s.