Australia captain Pat Cummins has cast doubt on his fitness for the first Ashes Test next month – so how will the hosts replace their star bowler?

The 32-year-old has said “it is less than likely” that he will feature as he recovers from a lumbar bone stress fracture that was discovered following a tour of the West Indies in July.

The pace bowler underwent further scans in October and was cleared of any fractures; however he remains a doubt for the remainder of the series.

Despite that, Cummins has also said that he is willing to gamble with his fitness in the series after Yorkshire’s Harry Brook – who will be Ben Stokes’s vice captain out in Australia - said that his absence “could play into our hands.”

Pat Cummins of Australia is likely to miss the first Ashes Test in Australia (Picture: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

placeholder image — Pat Cummins of Australia is likely to miss the first Ashes Test in Australia (Picture: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

The Aussie captain returned to the field yesterday for some running drills.

He told Cricket Australia’s official website: “You’d want at least probably a month in the nets.

“If you play a Test match, you want to make sure you’re right to bowl 20 overs in a day and you don’t have to really think about it.

“So four weeks is pretty tight, but I think somewhere around that mark. I’m running today and running kind of every second day, and each run is a little bit longer.

Mitchell Starc will see a greater role in the opening Test of the Ashes series (Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images for Cricket Australia)

“(Then I) get into bowling prep next week. (It’s) probably a couple of weeks away before I’m actually putting on the spikes and bowling out on turf.

“With these things, it’s pretty hard to go from not bowling or doing anything at all to suddenly playing five Tests.

“So first steps are trying to give (me) a shot at being right, and then we’ll work it out.”

Cummins hasn’t missed a test match for the Baggy Greens since March 2023 against India when he opted out due to family reasons.

With this unfamiliar territory for the side looking to retains the Ashes, for the fifth series in a row, what will their bowling line-up look like for the first Test in Perth on November 21?

Mitchell Starc

While we can’t read too much into that India trip given that the side lined up with three spin bowlers as they lost out 3-1.

One constant that we can expect to remain from that test is that Mitchell Starc will now open the bowling for Andrew McDonald’s side.

Starc holds exactly 100 test match caps which makes him the second Australian pace bowler to reach the milestone as he followed Glenn McGrath.

The second and third spot

However, it is further down the bowling order where things start to become a bit more interesting with Josh Hazelwood, Scott Boland and Cameron Green all vying for spots in the side.

While all three featured in the side that bowled the West Indies out for 143 and 27 in their respective innings in, July Green didn’t bowl a ball.

On the other hand, Boland, Hazelwood and Starc took 16 wickets between them in exactly 50 overs.

So, while that won’t be of massive concern for the Australians, it does suggest of an open spot in the bowling line-up.

The final spot

While Nathan Lyon was absent from the West Indies, the spin bowler did feature in two tests during the 2023 Ashes series before being forced out through injury.

While he remains a viable option, hybrid all-rounder Beau Webster was one to feature during the West Indies tour as an option to bowl both seam and spin.

The 31-year-old has seven test match caps but also captained the Cricket Australia XI in 2017 and 2018 before he moved to more of a medium paced bowling style in 2020.

Webster proved his worth in 2023 when he was Essex’s leading run-scorer and wicket taker in the 2023 one-day cup so would be more than a worthy option for McDonald.