BRISBANE:&nbsp;Australia captain Pat Cummins said he will be &quot;good to go&quot; for the third Ashes Test after missing the first two with a back injury, in more bad news for struggling England. The 32-year-old pace spearhead has not played since picking up the issue against the West Indies mid-year. Selectors flirted with including him for the second Test at Brisbane, but erred on the side of caution. &ldquo;First of all, yeah, I should be right for Adelaide,&rdquo; Cummins said on Fox Sports, referring to the third Test that starts on December 17. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll have one more bowl (on Sunday), and then we&#39;ll go to Adelaide and have another bowl there. &lsquo;Good to go&rsquo;&ldquo;So, barring any hiccups, I&#39;ll be good to go. Body feels great.&rdquo; Asked how close he was to playing in Brisbane, Cummins said: &ldquo;Relatively close, really. &ldquo;We thought it didn&#39;t feel like the right Test match to take that risk, so kick it down the road for a week.&rdquo; Australia have also been without fellow quick Josh Hazlewood for the first two Tests and the news from him was less encouraging. Achilles sorenessHe was back bowling after tweaking a hamstring six days before the opening Test in Perth, but reported Achilles soreness this week. Cricket Australia told local media it was a &ldquo;low-grade&rdquo; issue, but it casts further doubt over whether he will play any part in the five-Test series. In Cummins and Hazlewood&rsquo;s absence, Mitchell Starc has led the attack, taking 10 wickets in Australia&#39;s crushing eight-wicket win at Perth and another six in England&#39;s first innings at Brisbane. He has been ably supported by Scott Boland, Brendan Doggett, and Michael Neser.

Cricket

The 32-year-old pace spearhead has not played since picking up the issue against the West Indies mid-year; selectors flirted with including him for the second Test at Brisbane, but erred on the side of caution.

Ashes: Australia skipper Cummins ‘good to go’ for Adelaide Test

KARACHI:&nbsp;Legendary Pakistan pacer Wasim Akram believes even more is to come from Australia&#39;s &ldquo;incredible&rdquo; veteran Ashes wrecking ball Mitchell Starc. Akram was reacting to <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/wasims-still-better-says-starc-after-leftarm-wicket-landmark" style="color:#0073e6;">Starc surpassing his tally</a> of 414 wickets during the Brisbane Test against England on Thursday, becoming the leading left-arm pace bowler of all time. &ldquo;Congratulations to Starc on passing my tally of wickets,&rdquo; Akram told AFP, saying that the 35-year-old&rsquo;s passion and commitment helped set him apart. &lsquo;One of the best&rsquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;Starc has shown a great amount of dedication and focus in these times of too much cricket, having T20 leagues with big money coming your way. &ldquo;He did play T20 leagues but then decided to play more Tests and left the shorter format because he wanted to be remembered as one of the best in the world in the history of the game. &ldquo;Ten years down the line, if anyone decides to have an all-time Test team, then Starc will&nbsp;be named in that team for sure.&rdquo; &lsquo;Far better bowler&rsquo;&nbsp;Despite trumping Akram, Starc described the Pakistan great as the &ldquo;pinnacle&rdquo;. &ldquo;Wasim&#39;s still a far better bowler than I am,&rdquo; Starc said on Thursday. Akram dismissed the debate over who is the greatest. &ldquo;It is difficult to compare both of us because we are from different eras,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp; &ldquo;People say that I played on placid tracks and he played on bouncy Aussie tracks, so that was different. &lsquo;Go on and on&rsquo;&ldquo;But nowadays batters have a different mindset and they play aggressive shots even on good balls, so that makes wicket-taking a more difficult art.&rdquo; Akram said he believed Starc&rsquo;s passion could take him further. &ldquo;He is 35 and his pace is still there and passion remains at its peak. He has been incredible as a fast bowler and is enjoying fast bowling, so can go on and on.&rdquo;

Says ‘congratulations to Starc on passing my tally of wickets’, adding, ‘Starc has shown a great amount of dedication and focus in these times of too much cricket, having T20 leagues with big money coming your way.’

Pakistan legend Akram hails ‘incredible’ Starc after Ashes heroics

PERTH: Arch-rivals Australia and England resume Ashes hostilities on Friday in Perth with the hosts weakened by injuries but favorites to inflict more pain on a side with a dire record Down Under. The highly anticipated five-Test series gets under way on a fast, bouncy track at a sold-out Perth Stadium and with Ben Stokes&#39;s visitors insisting they are not scarred by past failures. It has been 15 years since England last clinched an away Ashes series and since then they have failed to win a Test on Australian soil, losing 13 and drawing two.<figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/99327356-4019-43b9-9eb1-d6cff6a85984-Untitled(8).jpg" alt="Untitled(8).jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" style="width: 823px; height: 463.349px;"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">PERTH: England&rsquo;s Ben Stokes warms up during a practice session at Optus Stadium in Perth on November 19, 2025, ahead of the first Ashes cricket Test match between Australia and England. -- Photo by AFP</figcaption></figure> This time they touched down on the back of a thumping 3-0 one-day defeat in New Zealand and criticism over scheduling -- just a single three-day red-ball warm-up on a docile pitch. &lsquo;Going to be tough&rsquo;&nbsp;Skipper Stokes said they were starting with a clean slate, despite their miserable record in Australia. &quot;They&#39;re a phenomenal team, especially in their home, so we know the next two-and-a-half months is going to be tough for us,&quot; he said. &quot;All the series that have gone past, whether that be in Australia or England, I don&#39;t think count for much.&quot; There may never be a better chance to snap the long winless streak with the hosts&#39; pace spearheads Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood injured and out of at least the first Test. Opening match&nbsp;Former Australia fast bowler Mitchell Johnson said their absence &quot;starts to rewrite the whole script for the Ashes&quot;.<figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/02615050-b635-44b4-badd-f41300026a8d-Starc.jpg" alt="Starc.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" style="width: 854px; height: 480.802px;"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">PERTH: Australia&rsquo;s Mitchell Starc speaks during a press conference at Optus Stadium in Perth on November 19, 2025, ahead of the first Ashes cricket Test match between Australia and England. -- Photo by AFP</figcaption></figure> &quot;It narrows Australia&#39;s margin for error and it forces selectors into decisions they&#39;d hoped they wouldn&#39;t have to make this early,&quot; he added. At least England have been spared an opening match in Brisbane, where they have won just twice since World War II. The Gabba will instead host the day-night second Test before the series moves to Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. <h2 style="line-height: 2;">Speed over swing&nbsp;</h2>England are relying heavily on their own cartel of express pacemen led by Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Matthew Potts and Josh Tongue, with Shoaib Bashir the only recognized spinner. But it is a gamble, with Wood the only one to have experienced Test cricket in Australian conditions and he has barely played since knee surgery earlier this year. Alongside Scott Boland, wily campaigner Mitchell Starc will shoulder the hosts&#39; attack with Cummins and Hazlewood out, with Nathan Lyon the spin option and seamer Brendan Doggett tipped to make his debut. Former Australia captain Greg Chappell said in a newspaper column that the Ashes would be decided by the superior fast bowling unit. &lsquo;History is unequivocal&rsquo;&ldquo;History is unequivocal -- to win in these vast, sun-baked arenas, you need express pace bowlers who can intimidate, extract bounce, and shatter partnerships on pitches that reward raw speed over subtle swing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If England&#39;s attack fires and dismantles Australia&#39;s batting order, the McCullum-Stokes masterplan will have them join the list of successful English leaders in Australia.&rdquo; But he cautioned against England employing the ultra-aggressive &ldquo;Bazball&rdquo; cricket favoured by the captain and coach Brendon McCullum. &ldquo;Their incendiary style might work on the small grounds in England on pitches prepared to be as flat as one-day pitches,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But it won&#39;t be as easy to throw caution to the wind on the bigger grounds and more bowler-friendly pitches here.&rdquo; <h2 style="line-height: 2;">Top-order worries&nbsp;</h2>A lot of England&#39;s hopes rest on the shoulders of Joe Root and Harry Brook, ranked as the world&rsquo;s top two Test batsmen. Brook has never played a Test in Australia while Root has failed to score a century in his 27 innings Down Under where he averages 35.68, well below his career average of 51.29. Australia will similarly be relying on Steve Smith to be in the runs. The 36-year-old, who will be captain in Perth, has plundered 18 of his 36 Test tons on home soil, averaging a formidable 59.70. Sixth opening partner&nbsp;&ldquo;If Smith gets on a roll and he starts scoring runs, it&rsquo;s going to be a challenge for England,&rdquo; his long-time former team-mate David Warner warned. Australia&rsquo;s batting vulnerability is at the top, with an ageing Usman Khawaja potentially padding up with a sixth opening partner since Warner retired early last year. The latest candidate is left-hander Jake Weatherald, the leading run-scorer in the Sheffield Shield last season but with no experience of the Test cauldron.

The five-Test series gets under way at a sold-out Perth Stadium and with Ben Stokes's visitors insisting they are not scarred by past failures; it has been 15 years since England last clinched an away Ashes series.

Articles tagged with "Ashes"

Ashes: Australia skipper Cummins ‘good to go’ for Adelaide Test

Pakistan legend Akram hails ‘incredible’ Starc after Ashes heroics

England face daunting task to break Ashes drought in Australia