Pat Cummins Prepares for Border-Gavaskar Trophy with Sheffield Shield Matches

Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins is gearing up for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India by planning to play in the Sheffield Shield tournament. The much-anticipated series will start with the first Test at Perth Stadium from November 22 to November 26.

India has won the last two series in Australia, held in 2018-19 and 2020-21. Cummins, who recently played for the San Francisco Unicorns in the Major League Cricket tournament, will rest during Australia’s white-ball series tour of Scotland and England next month. He will focus on his strength and conditioning ahead of the home series against India, which will span seven weeks and include two Test matches in Sri Lanka.

These seven Tests are crucial for Australia to defend their ICC World Test Championship title, as they are currently second behind India. Cummins’ last Sheffield Shield match was in February 2021 for New South Wales, and he has played just nine matches in the tournament throughout his career.

There is also an ODI series against Pakistan in early November, where Cummins could gain some match practice. Cummins mentioned, “I prefer to go a little bit fresher but definitely play some cricket going in. So I would say it is either two or three ODIs, plus a Shield game or maybe just some Shield, maybe some NSW one-day stuff. I imagine kind of late October/early November will be when I start playing building up for the Tests.”

New South Wales will have their Shield game against Victoria from October 20 onwards and then face Queensland from November 1, but the latter overlaps with the ODI series against Pakistan.