'Aim is five': Recovering Pat Cummins targets going unblemished for the entire Ashes series

Australian captain Pat Cummins is aiming to get through the entire Ashes series unblemished as he undergoes recovery for the 'lumbar bone stress' after complaining of a sore back, following the West Indies Test series. The soreness persisted for a longer period than expected and a regular scan revealed stress but ruled him out of a fracture, which was a relief. Cummins faces a race against time for the November 21 start in Perth in the first Test.

“The aim is five. Every summer you kind of aim for five,” Cummins was quoted as saying. "This one might be a little bit different because you’re coming in a little bit different than other ones. But the starting aim is for five.

“Once we get closer, we’re probably going to chat through potentially more realistic situations. “It’s honestly too far out to say, but the aim at the moment is to try and be ready for all of it," Cummins further said. 

The red-ball build-up towards the Ashes would have been ideal for Cummins by hopefully playing a Shield game or two but the Australian captain wasn't too distressed by it with priority being fully fit for the Ashes opener and not putting any unnecessary workload on the back. Had this situation been arrived 10 years ago, Cummins mentioned that he would have thought differently.

“I don’t think it’s vital. If you’d asked me 10 years ago, I would have said I really feel like in myself I need to play games. 

"Now it’s centre wickets, net sessions, I’ve bowled a lot more overs. I feel like I can kind of get up to Test level pretty quickly. I won’t go into a Test where I feel like I can break down or whatever." he added.

Just like Cummins, his England counterpart, Ben Stokes, too is recovering from his shoulder and hamstring injuries, which ruled him out of the fifth Test against India at the Oval. The five-match Ashes Test series kicks off on November 21 in Perth.