The Ashes | Pat Cummins certain of rotation, but won't seek rest unless 'something going wrong'

The rotation of fast bowlers is an old phenomenon in Australian cricket and they employed the move quite strategically in the past few years to keep their frontline pacers “fresh and ready to go” along with grooming other pacers on their radar.

However, the move was ditched last season when Tim Paine and Justin Langer played the trio of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood all the four Tests against India. 

By the end of the third Test in Sydney and the final Test in Brisbane, the signs of the move backfiring were becoming evident and the debate about how much a pacer should play and bowl reignited in the Australian media by former players.

Starc appeared to be the most tired bowler in the final Test and his lack of control allowed India to get away with some easy runs on the eventful final day at the Gabba.

As another long series against England looms over the hosts in the form of an iconic Ashes series, the leader of the Australian pace attack Cummins has no doubts that the pacers will be rotated and not all will the entire five-match series.

He said that Australia have a great bunch of pace bowlers and that it won’t be “huge issues” if one of the first-choice picks doesn’t recover from niggle. He added that the others can slot in right away into the playing XI and will put their hands up with the ball. 

However, he ruled himself out of resting for the sake of it and said that he won’t be seeking time off the field until he has to deal with “something going wrong”. 

Notably, Australia employed the rotation of pacers very successfully in the last Ashes series in England by using James Pattinson and Peter Siddle in odd matches but Pat Cummins was the only pacer who played all the five Tests of the series.

"When someone's I guess rested it is normally more to it than just purely workload," Cummins said. "There's always niggles and small little injuries that we're dealing with, basically after every single Test match. The great thing is we've got a huge stable of fast bowlers. So yeah, I don't think it'll be a huge issue if someone's not able to get up for a Test or someone's just red-lining a little bit. Someone else can slot in."

"I'd be surprised if the same four bowlers were used for all five Tests. That's pretty rare, especially the five-Test match summer. But I certainly won't be putting my hand up to be rested unless I've got something going wrong.”

The first Ashes Test is scheduled to take place at Gabba from December 8.