Pat Cummins to skip white-ball series against South Africa 

Kingston: Pat Cummins will skip the upcoming white-ball series against South Africa next month as he focuses on preparing for the Ashes later this year.

Cummins had already been rested for the five-match T20I series against the West Indies, alongside Mitchell Starc and Travis Head. Now, Josh Hazlewood – who was initially named in the squad – will also return home following the Test series, with Xavier Bartlett brought in as his replacement.

While Hazlewood is set to play in the white-ball series against South Africa in August – which includes three T20Is and three ODIs across Darwin, Cairns, and Mackay – Cummins will instead focus on a fitness block in preparation for the home summer.

Cummins is targeting a return for the brief T20I tour of New Zealand in early October and hopes to feature in some of the limited-overs games against India leading up to the Ashes in late November. He may also play a Sheffield Shield match for New South Wales – something he didn’t do last season ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

“I’ll have a good training block for the next couple of months, six weeks or so,” Cummins told reporters at Sabina Park.

“Probably not bowling, but lots of gym work. (My) body feels pretty good, but there’s always little bits and pieces you’re always trying to get right and then build up for the summer. So it’ll probably look like white-ball (cricket)…we’ve got some (matches against) New Zealand, India, potentially a Shield game and then into the home summer.”

Cummins remains Australia’s ODI captain but has only led the side twice in the format since the 2023 World Cup final. He missed this year’s Champions Trophy due to an ankle issue he had been managing during the Test series against India.

With the Ashes on the horizon, the early rounds of next season’s Sheffield Shield are expected to play a key role in shaping Australia’s plans, especially as the team continues its search for a settled top order. Sam Konstas will have two more opportunities to impress during the West Indies tour, while Usman Khawaja will be aiming to silence doubts over his form with two more innings. Cameron Green, meanwhile, will look to build on his second-innings half-century in Grenada.

Focus will then shift to how these players perform leading to England’s arrival. Green, who is part of the T20I squad in the West Indies, is likely to feature in the South Africa series before transitioning back to bowling duties. Konstas is expected to be involved in the four-day games during Australia A’s tour of India in September, while Khawaja is not expected to return until Queensland’s domestic season begins.

“There’s a lot of Shield cricket to come and some Aussie A stuff as well,” Cummins said on the significance of the final Test in the West Indies.

“I think (if) you do well at Test level, any time it’s going to kind of make your case more compelling. I think there’s a bit of a connection to the summer, but it feels a long way away at the moment.”

Xavier Bartlett, who is on a Cricket Australia central contract, will have the chance to build on his strong start in T20Is, where he has taken 11 wickets at an average of 14.72 from seven matches. He heads to the Caribbean fresh off a successful Major League Cricket (MLC) campaign with the San Francisco Unicorns, where, as of Friday, he was the tournament’s leading wicket-taker.

Joining him as a late addition to the squad is Jake Fraser-McGurk, who replaces left-arm pacer Spencer Johnson. The selectors opted to adjust the squad balance after Johnson developed back soreness during the IPL. Fraser-McGurk, who also played for the Unicorns alongside Bartlett in the MLC, began the tournament well but struggled towards the end, registering four single-digit scores in five innings.

In T20Is, Fraser-McGurk has scored 113 runs in seven appearances, with a highest score of 50 against Scotland last year. His recent form has been patchy – he averaged just 9.16 during this year’s IPL with Delhi Capitals and had a quiet BBL season with Melbourne Renegades, scoring 188 runs at 18.80, including 95 in a single innings against Brisbane Heat.

The five-match T20I series against the West Indies begins on July 20, with the first two games at Sabina Park followed by three more in St Kitts.

–IANS

The post Pat Cummins to skip white-ball series against South Africa  appeared first on News Room Odisha.

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