Australia captain Pat Cummins is unlikely to feature in the Boxing Day Test against England, scheduled to take place from December 26 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
After a five-and-a-half-month injury break, the Australian captain took six wickets in the third Test and played a key role in their 82-run win at the Adelaide Oval. Following victories in Perth and Brisbane, the hosts continued their strong performance and clinched the series 3-0, successfully retaining the Ashes. Cummins expressed joy over the “amazing” series victory but indicated he would reconsider injury risks for the upcoming matches.
“I’m feeling really good, but as for the rest of the series, we’ll wait and see. We had a pretty aggressive build-up knowing that it’s the Ashes there to be won and we thought that was worth it. Now that the series has been won, there might be a sense of job’s done and let’s reassess the risk,” he shared with broadcasters after the game.
“We’ll work it out over the next couple of days, I doubt I’ll be playing in Melbourne, and then we’ll have a chat about Sydney. But certainly before the series, it was, while the series was live, let’s take on the risk and have a crack at it. Now it’s done, I think we’ll need to have a chat about it,” Cummins added.
England’s Jamie Smith and Will Jacks posed a challenge to the hosts with a counterattack for a period, but pacer Mitchell Starc took three of the last four wickets, including those of Smith and Jacks. Scott Boland finished the innings by claiming the wicket of Josh Tongue, securing a well-earned victory for Australia.
“It feels pretty awesome. Yeah, amazing. It’s a series we’ve been thinking about for a long time. It wasn’t easy today, but we got it done. It’s a pretty excited changing room in there,” Cummins said regarding the win.
On maintaining pressure on England, he stated, “I think that’s when we’re at our best, this cricket team. You can’t really rush things here in Australia. I think you kind of will it to happen, but it doesn’t really work that way. It’s good old-fashioned grind a lot of the time. I loved the toil from all the guys today. It got a little bit closer than I would have liked, but I’m pretty happy.”
Nathan Lyon, who took three wickets on day four, was sidelined due to a hamstring injury while fielding. Nonetheless, the captain praised the team’s efforts on the field.
“I think that’s one of the things I’m most proud about in this group. Nothing ever really happens perfectly; there’s always something that gets thrown up.
“Over the last few years, this group has shown it can just crack on. Even I missed the first couple of games, Steve stepped right in and it was smooth and seamless. There’s always things that crop up; Nathan Lyon doing his hammy with a couple of hours left today.
“The boys just go, okay, that’s happened. Let’s crack on. What’s next? I think that’s one of the big reasons why we’ve had our success over the last couple of years,” he concluded.