Pat Cummins confident Mitchell Starc will play in final Ashes Test for Australia at SCG
Wednesday 3 January 2018 07:37, UK
Pat Cummins believes fellow Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc can be fit for the final Ashes Test in Sydney.
Starc, the series' leading wicket-taker, was unavailable for Melbourne in the fourth Test because of a bruised heel and the hosts will not want to rush him back ahead of this winter's second high-profile series in South Africa.
After spending several days after the Perth Test on crutches in December, he was back bowling at full speed again in the Sydney nets on Tuesday.
"He looked like he was bowling quick," said Cummins ahead of the Ashes finale at the SCG which starts on Thursday.
"He was running around and wasn't limping. I know he was really keen to play, and he was pretty confident. I think now it's seeing how it recovers. We hope he gets through.
The two New South Wales pacemen have taken 34 wickets between them to help Australia regain the urn, with an unassailable 3-0 lead.
Cummins knows from the experience of his own often injury-interrupted career that it is folly to return swiftly after a bruised heel - he acknowledges no chances will be taken with Starc, but senses his injury is not as bad.
"I'd say that's probably the big concern," he added. "But it's different to me. He can walk around. Each time I bowled a spell it got worse and worse.
"The way he was saying, it was almost worse in the first innings and stayed the same for the whole Perth match - and the last couple of weeks it's definitely got a lot better.
"So it's definitely different to what I had - by the end of my match, or even the first innings, I could hardly walk."
Cummins' continued availability throughout the five-match series contrasts with a Test career previously so blighted by physical frailties - to the extent of a six-year hiatus between his first and second caps.
It will be a special moment then for him not only to run in on his home ground but complete an unchecked campaign.
"It's really exciting," he said. "At the start of the summer the SCG felt a long way away. But it's gone pretty quickly and I'm pretty pumped.
"I've been here as a kid watching in the stands, so to be out here playing in an Ashes will be pretty special."
