New Delhi, Feb 21 Australia Test captain Pat Cummins said he is targeting a return to action from an ankle injury layoff in the 2025 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and expressed confidence over leading Australia in the World Test Championship (WTC) final against South Africa and subsequent tour of the West Indies.
Cummins has been out of action due to a left ankle niggle following Australia sealing a 3-1 victory over India in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at Sydney. The fast bowler had led Sunrisers Hyderabad to a runners-up finish in IPL 2024 and was retained by the franchise ahead of the 2025 mega auctions.
"That's the aim. It's four overs in T20s. So physically it's quite a nice build up for the World Test Championship final, and then the Test matches after that. That's the aim at this stage – start bowling over the next week or so, building up, and should be right for IPL. It's probably just making sure you're still bowling quite a few balls (during the IPL)."
"The good thing about a T20 tournament is the intensity is really high, so that obviously helps quite a bit. But maybe the back half the tournament, you ball a few extra balls in warm-ups and nets, just to make sure your body's used to bowling quite a bit."
"I feel like it's a little bit different now that I'm 30 now as opposed to my early 20s. I feel like my body's had plenty of balls in it over the years, and it's pretty hardened," Cummins was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au on Friday.
The ankle injury ruled Cummins out of Australia’s tour of Sri Lanka and their Champions Trophy campaign. In between, Cummins and his wife Becky welcomed their second child, a daughter named Edi. "It's been an amazing month or so just having full focus on family time and not having to do too much training or have my eye on a tour. Just being totally present has been really special."
"It was weird watching the Sri Lanka Test series. I haven't seen the boys play on TV really for years. They were fantastic, the boys were basically faultless. I could follow along and just enjoy it really. The ankle is starting to come good."
"It's a funny one – it's not like a hamstring where you need six weeks (to recover). It's one of those ones where it really just needs a bit (more) rest to settle down. I've been doing loads of rehab in the gym and trying to build back up slowly. Especially for a fast bowler, you've got to kind of step towards things."
"Once you have a bit of time off, you’ve got to start running again, and then you got to start bowling, and start building up. So we just ran out of time for Pakistan. It's not necessarily a new (injury), it's not anything that's going to be long-term, but it's just one of those ones you've got to manage. A bit of a break now, hopefully it sets it up for the next year or so," he concluded.
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