Australian skipper Pat Cummins is set to be named for the Second Ashes Test in Brisbane.
According to CODE Sports, Cummins will be added to the squad on Friday after overcoming a lower back injury.
Watch The Ashes 2025/26 LIVE and ad-break free during play with FOX CRICKET on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.
The 32-year-old was spotted in the nets at Cricket NSW headquarters on Tuesday, well ahead of the day-night Test starting next Wednesday.
Cummins’ return would likely mean First Test debutant Brendan Doggett makes way – but the man himself remains ready should the skipper be a late scratching.
“Obviously Pat is looking pretty good in the nets now… we’ll see where that lands,” Doggett said on Thursday.
“I’m just going to control what I can control. Keep ticking the legs over, keep bowling and trying to improve every session, every game.
“If I get called upon in that second Test I’ll feel ready to go.”
Just last week Cummins said he was a chance to play in Brisbane.
“It’s feeling good,” Cummins told Kayo Sports’ Ashes live coverage in Perth.
“I had a couple of good sessions in Perth this week, so having a big day where I’d bowl around 10 overs then a couple of quieter day and then going again.
“It’s on track and pulling up pretty well. (I’m) half a chance for the next game.
“I’ll have a couple more bowls and then there could be about two weeks before the next one the way this one is going.”
Australian coach Andrew McDonald had been confident Cummins would be available in Brisbane – but was mindful of overloading his skipper.
“(It’s) making sure that we’re not putting him in harm’s way in terms of accelerating it too much,” he said.
“But it will be a genuine discussion leading into this Test match, and that may be one that eventuates late for us.”
PERTH PITCH TICK DESPITE RECORD FINISH
The International Cricket Council has handed down their verdict on the Perth Stadium pitch in which the shortest Ashes Test in 137 years was played on, giving the surface a ‘very good’ rating.
Nineteen wickets fell on the first day of the series opener with Australia claiming victory inside two days, but the ICC made clear the pitch was not blame for the flurry of dismissals.
‘Very good’ is the highest rating a pitch can receive and is given to surfaces with “good carry, limited seam movement, and consistent bounce early in the match, allowing for a balanced contest between batters and bowlers”, according to the ICC’s four-tier rating system.
Travis Head’s incredible fourth innings hundred showed that life did not need to be all that hard for batters for in Perth despite the entire Test match lasting only 847 balls.
Mitchell Starc did make life tough for the English batters, however, as he took ten wickets for the match and a career best seven-wicket haul in the first innings.
The left arm quick also expressed after play on day one that sometimes credit simply has to be given where it is due.
“We often sit here and say it’s the wicket or it’s the batting but I think both teams bowled really well,” Starc said.
“We know how England want to take the approach of being aggressive, that creates opportunities and I thought we bowled quite well.
“There’s obviously a nice covering of grass that the seam can sometimes grip into that grass. I think a really good day for both bowling groups.”
The ICC cleared disagreed with England captain Ben Stokes, however, who said the pitch was “offering a lot to bowlers”.
“For me, in conditions like that, on wickets like that, that offer a lot to bowlers, when you are the one who’s managed to get the time out in the middle, read the wicket and understand it,” Stokes said.
“It’s pretty obvious that the guys who managed to find success out there were the ones who really decided to take the game on, because there was a lot happening out there.”
The rating also disagreed with the social media comments of prominent cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle, who said “a track that allows a game to end in two days isn’t fair to the stakeholders of the game”.
Bhogle was one of several voices from the subcontinent to allege the hypocrisy of a stack of wickets falling in a day in Australia when there is outcry for the same thing taking place on a turning track in India.
MARSH FIRMS FOR SURPRISE RETURN
Australia could make a surprise selection call for the second Test, with Mitchell Marsh reportedly a chance of being recalled to their squad to face England.
But even if he isn’t, the all-rounder is expected to feature in the Australian squad at some point in the Ashes, and possibly return to the XI in a development that spells trouble for Usman Khawaja.
That is according to a report from The Sydney Morning Herald, which claimed Marsh will be part of the selectors’ plans for the “pointy end” of the series.
Marsh’s selection would effectively serve as a counter from Australia to England’s all-out pace attack of Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, Brydon Carse and Gus Atkinson, while he could also offer a versatile option in the middle of the batting order.
That, in turn, could be a problem for Khawaja as it would allow Australia to then permanently shift Travis Head to open after his heroics at Perth.
If Marsh isn’t selected for Brisbane, The Herald reported he will be included in Western Australia’s team to play Victoria at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, marking his first Sheffield Shield appearance since October last year.
Marsh, who has not played a first-class match since being dropped after the Boxing Day Test against India last year, was floated as a genuine left-field option by both Greg Chappell and Michael Vaughan ahead of the first Test against England.
“Mitch Marsh is the choice I would have preferred,” Chappell wrote in a column.
“It would have been a left-field choice, but this is a venue where he has an advantage over all other candidates. He grew up in Perth so the bounce would not worry him; he is one of the best players of pace in the country, and he could have bowled some meaningful overs to support the frontline quicks.”
Vaughan, meanwhile, called Marsh’s century at the 2023 Headingley Test “exceptional” and said “the way that he plays pace bowling” is why he would have gone with the West Australian at the top of the order.
Chair of selectors George Bailey hinted earlier in the month that Marsh could factor in Australia’s plans later in the series.
“He’s got a game that could provide an injection, a different look at how he might attack it,” Bailey said of Marsh.
“It’s not the path we’re going down to start the series, but what it looks like later on, we’ll see.”
FORMER AUSSIE TEST COACH SAYS ENGLAND FANS ‘SHOULD BE BETTER’
Darren Lehmann has taken aim at England fans, declaring they “should be better” than the “abuse” directed at Steve Smith over the ball-tampering scandal.
Lehmann was the coach of the Australian side when the incident took place in 2018 and later stepped down from his role at the end of the series against South Africa, while Smith was banned for 12 months for his involvement in ‘Sandpapergate’.
Speaking on ABC Sport after the first Test, Lehmann said the abuse he receives is “daily” and added that he could only imagine how much worse it would be for someone like Smith who was at the centre of it and is still playing.
“It is unbelievable. He (Smith) is playing every day. It would be worse for him,” Lehmann said.
“In England they just don’t forget. It is like they have never done anything wrong in their life.
“It is only the ones that drink too much and carry on like pork chops.
“It just borders on abuse, but we did the wrong thing, you’ve got to accept it. It’s not great for your mental health, to be completely honest.”
Lehmann did acknowledge that “most of” the Barmy Army are “very supportive” of the sport, but called on those who do continue to sledge Smith to consider the impact of constantly reminding Australia’s stand-in skipper of his past.
“We did the wrong thing, accept it and move on,” Lehmann said.
“You try to move on the best you can. You get reminded every day and that is part and parcel.
“Steve Smith can hold his head high with how he handles everything.
“The Barmy Army should be better than that. Most of them are and are very supportive of what goes on in the game.”
SILVER LINING BEHIND TWO-WAY TEST
Elsewhere, while the first Test may have left some fans with tickets for later days disappointed, there was one silver lining to come from England’s collapse.
Western Australia’s Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti revealed on Instagram that the early finish allowed Perth Stadium to make the most of all its leftover food, providing the “biggest” donation in its history to charities, schools, women’s refuges and “individuals in need” across Perth.
“Thanks to the fast-finishing Ashes Test at Optus Stadium, hundreds of kilos of fresh food have been donated to Western Australians in need,” Saffioti wrote.
“When it became clear the match would wrap up early, the Optus Stadium team moved quickly to minimise waste.
“Given the size of the donation – the biggest provided by the stadium to date – OzHarvest has partnered with two other local organisations, SecondBite and Foodbank WA to distribute the products to charities, schools, women’s refuges and individuals in need across Perth.
“From stacked pallets of fruit and veg, to sandwiches, dairy and bread – even 450kg of tomatoes now being turned into passata – this is community spirit at its best.”
‘FED UP’ ENGLISH GREAT’S DIRE 5-0 WARNING
Meanwhile, Lord Ian Botham has sent an Ashes whitewash warning to England while also challenging two of their best players to lift or risk their legacies being affected.
Joe Root and Ben Stokes have not won a Test in Australia and after the collapse in the first Test, the pair are already on the back foot if they want to change it this time around.
This may be their last chance too given both are 34 years old and to be considered among “the very best”, Botham said both Root and Stokes “need to win in Australia”.
“People remember you for what you’ve done over here,” he told the PA news agency.
“In Joe and Ben we’ve got two world-class players – Joe’s got 39 hundreds for goodness sake – but they are desperate to make an impression here. You can only do that by winning. They need to get the monkey off their back.
“They are the two who will want this the most because a lot of the others will get another bite at the cherry.
“I can tell you from experience, winning over here feels really, really good and it means absolute respect. I don’t have a favourite time because every time you beat Australia is a great day. That alone should drive England.”
As for England’s chances of turning it around after the disaster at Perth, Botham said they “need to fire up quickly” and that means adapting from the overly aggressive approach.
“It was horrendous, there’s no other word for it,” Botham said.
“England need to fire up and fire up quickly.
“I’m fed up of hearing, ‘this is the way we play’. If I hear it once more, I think I’ll throw something at the television.”
Botham then went on to warn that if England continue to play that way, they may as well “go home now”.
“Because it’s going to be 5-0,” he added.
