They’ve barely touched a red ball in months, but young quicks Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins say they’ll be more than ready to wreak havoc during the Test series against South Africa.
Starc and Cummins on Tuesday arrived home after spearheading the Sydney Sixers’ Champions League triumph in South Africa – the tournament helping to line their pockets but taking a large bite out of their preparations for the Australian summer.
Having been included in the 12-man squad to face South Africa in next week’s first Test at the Gabba, left-armer Starc might have just three days of Shield cricket starting on Friday to prepare to face world’s No.1 Test outfit.
Cummins hasn’t played a first-class game since his Test debut when he helped guide Australia to victory over South Africa in Johannesburg almost 12 months ago, with injury stalling a promising career.
He is being earmarked for a return in the third Test at the WACA – with his comeback to the longer form of the game being carefully managed.
Starc is hoping his success with the white ball in Twenty20 and one-day cricket will transfer easily to the Shield and Test scene.
“They’re both Kookaburra balls,” he said.
“I’ve taken a lot of confidence with how the ball’s come out over the last few months.
“For me, the main thing was playing a lot of cricket back to back, starting off with Yorkshire in England to play a lot of games there and carry through the last few tours.
“I’m pretty happy with the amount of balls I’ve been bowling over the last few months.
“We’ve been doing stuff outside of training to make up the numbers … hopefully (I’m) in a good position to bowl lots of overs in four-day cricket.”
Cummins is hoping to play the final day of NSW’s Shield game at Alan Border Field on Monday, with Australian players in the Blues’ side possibly to be pulled out of the game a day early to begin preparations for the meeting with the Proteas.
Finally over the series of injuries which interrupted his Test career after just one game, Cummins admitted to being frustrated at being forced to watch on, but was hoping to force his way back for the series finale.
“I guess we probably mapped it out three or four months ago – I knew what the process was going to be,” Cummins said.
“You want to play as much cricket as possible and it starts with Shield – I haven’t played Shield for close to 18 months now so I’m just chomping at the bit to get out there.
“It’s okay that it’s mapped out three or four months in advance but it does hurt when you’re sitting on the sidelines and you feel relatively fit and there’s other people playing.”
