Pat Cummins takes eight weeks off from bowling to prepare for Border-Gavaskar Trophy

MELBOURNE: Australia captain Pat Cummins has announced eight weeks complete off from bowling as he prepares his body for another action-packed cricket season, starting with the five-match home Test series against India in November.

The pacer was not picked for Australia's white-ball tour of the United Kingdom in September as part of workload management which gives him ample time to recover his body from tiring 18 months of cricket.

The 31-year-old recently returned from the United States following his maiden Major League Cricket campaign with San Francisco United.

The last 18 months have been gruelling for Cummins. Following a wrist fracture towards the end of the Ashes series in England, he has played in an ODI series against India, the victorious ODI World Cup in India, three Tests against Pakistan, two Tests against the West Indies, a T20 tour of New Zealand, two Tests against the Black Caps, the Indian Premier League, the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean, and the MLC tournament.

“I’m very sore today after a week of gym. Hamstrings, even ankles, kind of build up over months of bowling, but you can’t really nail it while you’re in the midst of the season,” Fox Cricket quoted Cummins as saying.

The speedster said he will work on rehabilitation exercises during the break and focus on building strength ahead of the tight cricketing season.

“I’ll be doing lots of gym, some running, a lot of rehab exercise that you just can’t really fit in the middle of the season," he added.

Cummins said the break will allow him to come back fresh and to avoid any injury setback.

“Everyone that comes back after a break and is a little bit fresher, you never regret it. I’ve basically been bowling non-stop since the World Test Championship final, nearly 18 months ago," he said.

“This gives me a good seven or eight weeks completely off bowling so the body can recover, then you start building up again for the summer. It means you can hopefully bowl for a little bit longer, maintain pace is a bit easier, make you less susceptible to injuries," Cummins added.

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy, now a five-Test series this summer, has been held by India since 2017. During this period, India has won four consecutive series, including landmark victories on Australian soil in 2018/19 and 2020/21. When Australia last won the trophy, Cummins had just one Test cap.

Despite the Australian men’s team’s significant accomplishments in recent years - including two World Cup titles and a World Test Championship - Cummins recognised that India’s dominance in Test cricket remains “the one blight” that needs to be addressed.

“It’s the trophy I haven’t won before … this is the one trophy a lot of our group haven’t ticked off,” Cummins said.

“We’ve achieved some amazing things over the last few years as a Test group. You kind of back yourself to win every series at home. I think you need to try and be up there in the upper echelon of teams.

“That’s what lies ahead of us this summer. They’re a really good side. We play them quite a lot, we know them really well, but we feel like we’re really well placed also," he added.

Meanwhile, Cummins revealed that he has no plans to retire from the game’s shortest format, hoping he can help Australia win gold at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. “Watching the Olympics, it got us all excited. You want to be part of it right there in the middle,” Cummins said.

“I’d love to be on that side (at LA28). I think I’ll be 35 or something, so hopefully still there or thereabouts. Honestly right now, it feels a long way away. Maybe once we get closer and start building into it, everyone gets a bit more excited," he added.