Pat Cummins puts Test cricket first as Australia's 'unprecedented' red-ball schedule beckons

Pat Cummins is keen to play a significant role in Australia's unprecedented red-ball schedule, which includes 21 Tests in the upcoming 12 to 14-month period.

Cummins played eight games in IPL 2026 for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). It was Cummins' first competitive tournament following an injury layoff that saw him miss Australia's ICC Men's T20 World Cup campaign.

The Australia captain pulled up well after his bowling workload during the IPL and wants to build his workload gradually to make his body ready for the grind of Test cricket.

"Body feels awesome," Cummins was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo at a media event for Amazon Prime's coverage of the women's Twenty20 World Cup.

"I got a scan, all sweet, so now it's the next step up, which is getting ready to bowl 20 overs in a day and wake up and do it again in a Test match."

Australia's demanding red-ball schedule begins with a two-match Test series at home in August.

Cummins feels that Australia's pace troika of himself, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood would want to feature in all the red-ball games, but that would be highly unlikely.

"The lucky thing is I haven't played much in the last year or so, so I'm actually coming in physically as good as I possibly could be," Cummins said.

"I'm kind of hoping that I play all of them, but I'm sure things will pop up along the way.

"It'd be very surprising if the same three bowlers played in 21 of the Tests ... there might be a little bit of chopping and changing. It's kind of unprecedented."

Cummins made it very evident that his priority remains the forthcoming red-ball games for Australia, and his participation in white-ball cricket would depend on his fitness.

"It's prioritising the Test matches and then outside of that, there won't be too much," Cummins added.

"There's some white-ball cricket, but I think some of that might be how you pull up from the Test matches."

Australia have Michael Neser, Scott Boland, Brendan Doggett, and Jhye Richardson in their pace-bowling reserves, and they are likely to fill in as and when the big three need rest.