Australia hopeful of Cummins return in Brisbane, Khawaja no certainty for Gabba

SYDNEY: Australia coach Andrew McDonald is hopeful skipper Pat Cummins will be able to play in the second Ashes test and thinks it highly unlikely that quick Josh Hazlewood will miss the whole series.

Paceman Cummins on Saturday rated himself a “half chance” to play the day-nighter against England in Brisbane from December 4 but McDonald was a little more positive than that when he spoke to reporters on Monday in Perth.

The coach said the 32-year-old had been scheduled to turn his arm in the nets on day four of the Perth Test on Monday but Australia’s stunning victory inside two days had forced him to put those plans back by a day.

“That hasn’t eventuated the way that we would have liked for Patty,” McDonald said.

“Once we see him there again, we’ll be able to then join the dots as to what (a return) potentially looks like. It will be a genuine discussion leading into this Test match and that may be one that eventuates late for us.

“A little bit to work through but it’s nearing completion, which is really, really positive.”

Hazlewood, another member of the three-man pace cartel that has served Australia for a decade, suffered a hamstring injury that ruled him out of the first Test.

“He’s working through first week of his rehab,” said McDonald.

“Once he gets further down the track, then we’ll be in a position to communicate. He’ll be available at some point in the series.”

The third member of the trio, Mitchell Starc, stepped up with match figures of 10 for 113 in the first Test, a match dominated by pace bowling until Travis Head’s spectacular 123 won the day for the home side.

McDonald said opener Usman Khawaja, who suffered back spasms in Perth that prevented him from coming out at the top of the order for the second innings, had returned home for checks but was not guaranteed to start in Brisbane even if he was fit.

“It’s a long way out, a lot of information to gather between now and then, and hopefully Usman is fit and available for selection,” he said.

“I think anytime you spasm, it’s a result of something going on in your back. So I think that further investigation is just due diligence around that.”

Head to get second-innings opening role?

Head scored his match-winning century as a second-innings opener in his place and McDonald suggested it was a role the South Australian might reprise in future matches.

“I think it gave us a little bit of a lens potentially to the future in terms of adjusting batting orders in second innings,” he said.

“You do it in one-day cricket, you front-end some of your innings if you know the back end is going to be difficult to chase down the runs.

“It’s a conversation that we have had. We’ve had a conversation around Travis opening the batting for a long period of time, and Trav has been on the record this week around that also.”

Pink ball Tests, particularly the evening sessions, are often dominated by pace bowling but McDonald said spinner Nathan Lyon would not be lightly discarded for the Gabba.

“It’s not something that we like doing,” the coach said. “If you look at Australian pink ball cricket in general terms, the middle sessions have been quite benign, and Nathan’s done a lot of work there.”