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“It’s something we definitely think about,” Cummins told ESPNcricinfo ahead of the release of The Test – Season 3 on Prime Video on Friday. “Think we are lucky in that everyone has gone a couple of years longer than we’d have first hoped. Hopefully it’s the same with Nath.
“The job is to try and ensure he does get those four or five years. We try and do everything we can to get him right for those Test matches. At his age, it all comes down to his body really. That will be his biggest barrier so [it will be about] as much as we can help him and he can help himself, similar to what Jimmy Anderson did.”
“In more recent years, it’s one of the benefits of white-ball cricket that we have so many guys who play all three formats [that] they are going to have rest at some points,” Cummins said. “In white-ball cricket, we’ve seen the emergence of younger guys. So come big tournaments or Test matches, they’ve already had some exposure, and hopefully it makes the transition a bit more seamless.”
Last year was one of considerable success for Australia with the World Test Championship (WTC) title, retention of the Ashes and the ODI World Cup triumph, of which The Test chronicles the first two of those. At the end, though, there is the sense of a missed opportunity having been unable to win the Ashes series in England despite being 2-0 up, with a number of members of that side unlikely to return in 2027.
“Think maybe Headingley was one that got away from us,” he said. “Manchester we were totally outplayed, nothing went our way, but think Leeds we had our opportunities. Felt like [it was] one or two partnerships that they had, [and] maybe if we’d got some earlier wickets, particularly to the tail, you wish you had another crack at [that].
Australia are well-placed to qualify for next year’s WTC final – although dropped what could be crucial points at home against West Indies in January – with next summer’s five-match India series likely to be vital, before an away trip to Sri Lanka to complete the current cycle.
“I’d love if the second half was as successful as the first half,” Cummins said of the current WTC cycle. “Most things have gone to plan for now. Think you are going to get a natural churn rate with some of our more senior guys. Hopefully they hang around for a while and they can manage their bodies until we are done. That makes the job for Andrew and myself a lot easier, but we’ll see.
“I’ve been pretty open to say I don’t think I’ll do this forever. Feel really well-placed at the moment. Feel like we are in a really good spot, so it’s certainly not imminent.”
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