Cummins not fazed by India snub

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Cricket365
January 16, 2017

Fast bowler Pat Cummins claims that he was always an outsider for the India tour having played very little red ball cricket and he isn’t too bothered about being left out.

Cummins has performed well with the white ball and has staged a strong ODI comeback that led many to tip the big quick for a Test recall next month but it wasn’t to be.

The fast bowler told the gathered media in Perth: “I knew I wasn’t going to be selected.

“I haven’t played a Shield game yet (this summer).

“But knowing I’ve got heaps of one-dayers and T20s and the possibility of a Shield game at the end of the season is pretty exciting

“I’ll hopefully play a Shield game sometime this year. We’ve got six (more) ODIs here and in New Zealand (over the next three weeks) and then there’s three T20s (against Sri Lanka in February). I’d love to be a part of all that.

“Then that still leaves me time to play at least one Shield game.”

Cummins played his only Test to date over five years ago as a teenager against South Africa at the Wanderers and his injury woes have kept him out of first class cricket for nearly as long.

The quick is eager to get himself into contention for an Ashes call up though by playing as much Shield cricket as his ODI commitments will allow.

He said: “The start of the summer (my goal) was to get through to the New Zealand ODIs before Christmas and everything worked perfectly and it got me there.

“Since then we set another goal to get through the Big Bash and these ODIs and at the moment, that’s pretty much all I’m thinking about and we’ll re-assess after that.

“If I get through all these eight one-dayers and bowl a lot of overs at a good intensity, that should get me ready for Shield cricket.”