Australia have not announced any reinforcements for the Brisbane Test starting on Thursday, but have not given up on regular skipper Pat Cummins making a last-minute entry into the playing XI either.
Cummins missed the series opener in Perth due to a back injury and was expected to miss the day-night Test too in order to give him more time to recover, especially as the hosts lead the Ashes series 1-0. But Australia have delayed announcing their XI and refused to rule out the possibility of his inclusion.
Cummins bowled in the nets at Perth, after going home to Sydney and in Brisbane as well. Steve Smith addressed the customary pre-match captain’s press conference.
“We’ll wait and see what the wicket looks like later and from there we’ll determine a playing XI,” he said.
Smith, Cummins, head coach Andrew McDonald and chief selector George Bailey were seen talking on the Gabba square, after which Cummins was embraced by McDonald.
Smith refused to give much away regarding Cummins’ inclusion in the day-night fixture.
“He looks pretty good to me; he’s bowled in the nets. Obviously, games are different intensity, but he’s tracking nicely and he knows his body well,” the stand-in captain said.
“He’s been bowling for a few weeks and pulling up well, and ramping his numbers up. He’s feeling good. He’s bowling nicely in the nets, having faced him.”
There will be at least one change in the Aussie line-up with regular opener Usman Khawaja having been ruled out due to a back injury. Josh Inglis is the most likely player to replace him, but Travis Head, who hit a breathtaking fourth-innings century to win the Perth Test for Australia, is likely to stay at the top of the order.
“He’s a pretty attacking batsman,” Smith said about Inglis. “He did really well on his debut in Sri Lanka. He’s been in really good form and plays fast bowling nicely. I’m sure he’ll do really well.”
Australia may also have a decision to make whether to include off-spinner Nathan Lyon in the line-up. He was left out of the last day-night Test they played, in Jamaica, and bowled just one over in the pink-ball game against India in Adelaide a year ago. In the recent Perth Test, he bowled just two overs, both in the first innings. He didn’t bowl at all in the last Ashes day-night Test in Hobart in 2022, but he did bowl 50 overs in the 2024 day-night Test in Brisbane against the West Indies.
“I’m not sure. We’ll look at the surface and sum things up from there. And I think here’s a place where Nathan’s done really well in the past. He’s a quality bowler. But we’ll weigh up the options and see how we go,” Smith said.
“It’s still quite grassy, a little soft,” he said about the pitch. “It’s obviously going to bake under the sun again today, and I think [the curator] is going to take a little bit off it, so it might look a little bit different.”
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