‘Desire to play all Tests also reason behind decision to skip T20WC’

Melbourne: Australia pace spearhead Pat Cummins says his injury-forced withdrawal from the T20 World Cup was also driven by a desire to be completely fit for the upcoming Test season in which he wants to play all the games.

The Test and ODI captain of his team was ruled out of the T20 World Cup as he failed to recover from a back injury and was replaced by Ben Dwarshuis.

Cummins has been dealing with the back injury since Australia’s tour of the the West Indies last July and although he is feeling “really good” right now, he decided to skip the tournament starting February 7 after a scan.

“It was really unfortunate. I feel pretty good, just a minor setback and just ran out of time really. I’ll rest up for a few weeks and go from there,” Cummins was quoted as saying by the ‘Australian Associated Press’. “We knew after the (Adelaide) Test match we were going to need somewhere between four and eight weeks to let the bone settle right down before then building back up. Initially, we thought it might only be four weeks, because I was feeling really good, but just had a follow-up scan.

“They thought it probably needs another couple of weeks, so the timeline just became a bit too tight.”

Australia have a jam-packed Test schedule starting August when they host Bangladesh for two Test matches in Darwin and Mackay, followed by a Test and ODI tour of South Africa in September.

The Aussies will then host New Zealand before touring India for a five-Test Border-Gavaskar series, followed by the pink-ball 150th anniversary Test against England at the MCG in March.