As one of Australia’s brightest young prospects, Mitch Marsh, all but guaranteed his return to the Test team for the Ashes-ending match at the Oval, another, Pat Cummins, insisted he was ready to play despite not playing a Test for almost four years – and even longer in the Sheffield Shield.
The two youngest members of Australia’s Ashes squad were conspicuous for their impressive performances with bat and ball in the tour match against Northamptonshire.
All-rounder Marsh took 4-56 and then made 68 to hold the top half of the Australian innings together, as the only top-eight batsman to pass 25.
Given coach Darren Lehmann’s admission after the fourth Test that they should have played an all-rounder, the 23-year-old looks set to return for the match, starting on Thursday, ahead of Shane Watson, who was not able to capitalise on the promising start with the bat and laboured with the ball.
The two batsmen most in danger of losing their place to Mitch Marsh, his elder brother Shaun Marsh and Adam Voges, both failed in the tour match, although the latter did make a gritty unbeaten half-century in his past Test innings.
Cummins’ plucky batting was vital in Australia avoiding the ignominy of possibly having to follow-on against Northamptonshire, as they slumped to 8-180 in pursuit of 396. He and Nathan Lyon shared a 98-run partnership for the ninth wicket.
Even though Cummins’ score of 82 not out trounced his previous first-class best of 21 not out – he had only scored a total of 60 runs beforehand from his seven first-class matches – and he was close to a maiden century, he said he had not contemplated asking captain Steve Smith for more time before Smith and Northamptonshire counterpart Josh Cobb called off the match.
“I think they [teammates] already had one foot on the bus [to London], so I didn’t argue,” he said.
Cummins, who dazzled with his express-pace bowling on his Test debut in late 2011 but is yet to play another one due to injury, said he arrived on the Ashes tour as a replacement for the retired Ryan Harris without expectations he would play in the series.
While the 22-year-old has not played Sheffield Shield since the 2010-11 final when he was just 17, and broke down in the aftermath of bowling 65 overs in the match, he said that was misleading in regards to his capacity to be ready to play in the Test against England if he is selected.
“I was speaking to the physio today and we were trying to work it out, and I’ve been bowling for two years straight and I think I’ve missed one week out of the two years. And I’ve had no niggles or anything, so I can’t be any more ready if I get the call-up,” he said.
“It is [misleading to focus on the gap since the last shield match]. I think the last 12 months we were just looking towards the World Cup and the way the schedule was it was just too packed, so I wasn’t able to play shield cricket but I was certainly available and fit . . . it’s just the way it’s worked out.”
Cummins said his ability to bowl 20.4 overs against Northamptonshire had been significant, in terms of how much bowling he had been used to, and that he was rapt with how he felt after it.
“It was the first time I’ve bowled 20 overs in a day for a year or two and the body felt perfect. No niggle or anything, just general fast-bowler’s wear and tear,” he said. “It probably felt like the best I’ve bowled in a long time as well. I just really enjoyed easing into spells and trying to work out how to swing the ball and try and get consistent swing and use the bouncer and doing all those things that you do in first-class cricket, I just loved.”
One of those bouncers was way too fast for Northampton’s Ben Sanderson, striking the tailender in the helmet without injuring him.
Fast bowlers Josh Hazlewood and Mitch Johnson were both below their best in Nottingham in the fourth Test, but with both rested for the weekend tour match and not being part of the squad for the looming limited-overs series, selectors may prefer to keep them, and Mitch Starc, ahead of Cummins, which would result in Australia fielding the same bowling attack, complemented by off-spinner Nathan Lyon, for the seventh consecutive Test.
