Australia captain Pat Cummins during a press conference on the eve of the first Test match between India and Australia in Nagpur.
Australia Test captain Pat Cummins has taken an eight-week break to recharge in his quest to lift the coveted Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India later this year.
Cummins, who recently returned from the United States following his first season in Major League Cricket, has been rested for next month’s white-ball tour of the UK to manage his workload and give him time to work on his body ahead of a busy summer.
“Everyone who comes back after a break is a bit fresher, you never regret it,” Cummins told Fox Sports.
“Basically, I’ve been bowling non-stop since the World Test Championship final, almost 18 months ago. This gives me a good seven or eight weeks off bowling so the body can recover, and then I can start preparing again for the summer.
“That means you’ll hopefully be able to play for a little bit longer, keeping up the pace is a little bit easier and it makes you less susceptible to injury,” he added.
Cummins has had a busy last 12 months after fracturing his wrist towards the end of England’s Ashes campaign.
He played in an ODI series against India, the triumphant ODI World Cup campaign, three Tests against Pakistan, two Tests against the West Indies, a T20 tour of New Zealand, two Tests against New Zealand, the Indian Premier League, the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and the MLC tournament.
“I’m really sore today after a week in the gym. The hamstrings, even the ankles, build up after months of bowling, but you can’t bowl well when you’re in the middle of the season,” said the 31-year-old.
“I’ll be doing a lot of gym work, running a little bit and doing a lot of rehab exercises that you can’t really do mid-season.”
This year, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy will be contested over five Tests. Since 2017, Australia has failed to win the trophy as India won four consecutive series, including historic triumphs on Australian soil in 2018-19 and 2020-21.
And Cummins is desperate to lift the trophy this summer under his captaincy.
“It’s a trophy I haven’t won before… this is the one trophy that a lot of our group haven’t gotten,” Cummins said.
“We have achieved some incredible things in the last few years as a Test group. You back yourself to win every series at home. I think you should try to be among the best teams.”
“That’s what we’re looking forward to this summer. They (India) are a really good team. We’ve played against them a lot, we know them very well, but we also feel that we’re in a very good position,” he added.
Cummins, meanwhile, is in no mood to give up T20 cricket just yet, and hopes to help Australia win gold at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, where cricket will make its debut at the quadrennial exhibition.
“Watching the Olympics was exciting for all of us. You want to be a part of it from the start,” Cummins said.
“I’d love to be on that side (in LA28). I think I’ll be 35 or something like that, so I hope to still be there or thereabouts.
“It really feels like there’s a lot missing right now. Maybe when we get closer and start building it, everyone will get a little more excited,” he said.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First published: August 18, 2024 | 10:33 a.m. IS
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