Australia captain Pat Cummins declares back injury 'fully healed' after long lay-off

Australia's Test captain has effectively been on ice for two seasons. Once their go-to all-format quick, a stress fracture on his lower back changed the trajectory of his career. He's played zero white-ball cricket for Australia since November 2024, but featured in ten tests since then and, of course, two seasons in the Indian Premier League with Sunrisers Hyderabad.

More recently, Cummins played in just one Ashes Test and only joined Sunrisers for the latter stages of the ongoing 2026 IPL.

Speaking to ESPN, the big quick admitted the break and slow restart has done him wonders as he prepares for a bumper batch of 20 Tests between this August and the 2027 Ashes next August.

"I actually feel really fresh for the last four months," said the 33-year-old.

"I haven't played as much. So physically, I feel as good as I have probably in six or seven years. I think a lot of the reason why I did probably miss longer than perhaps I could have was with the next 18 months in mind. Stress fractures in your back do recur quite often and we just wanted to eliminate all that risk to make sure that if I had a problem in six months, that could rule me out of a lot of those 20 Tests.

"So physically, I feel great. My back's fully healed, really strong. We took a very low-risk approach to the rehab to give myself the best chance to play all those Test matches."

Cummins added that his priority remains being fit for Test match cricket, but it's convenient that the IPL runs in the break.

"Nothing has changed for me, my priority is Australian cricket, No. 1, particularly Test cricket," he confirmed.

"As Test captain, I never want to miss any Test cricket and make myself available for as many Aussie games as I can.

"The IPL is good in that it normally fits in our holiday break, so that's the obvious one, but they are probably my main focuses and I don't see that's going to change at all for the next few years for me at least."

Australia's next Test is in Darwin on 13 August, where they host Bangladesh.