Pat Cummins says he’s planning to play first Ashes Test against England amid back issue

But the Australian captain is optimistic his troublesome back will settle ahead of the first Test, even if he cannot play any lead-up cricket.

The champion paceman is dealing with a lumbar bone stress problem that has ruled him out of the white-ball tour to New Zealand and home limited-overs series against India, leaving him in a race against time before the battle for the urn commences in Perth on November 21.

Cummins said he had not identified a particular date for any potential return, other than to say that all decisions would be made through the prism of getting to the toss at Optus Stadium.

“We’ll kind of give it a little bit of time and have another think about it in a month or so,” Cummins told television reporters at a Cricket Australia broadcast day in Brisbane on Wednesday.

“But kind of work back from the Ashes. I feel, you know, this stage (of) my career, I feel like I can probably get up to speed a bit quicker than when I was 18 or 19. So, you know, back then you probably feel like you need to play a few Shield games or one-dayers (ahead of a series).

“But I’m pretty confident (that) even if I don’t get a chance to play in a Shield game, I can get up to speed pretty quickly.”

Pressed on whether it was too early to determine whether he would be available for the series opener, Cummins said it was difficult to be sure given the first Test remained so far away, but indicated he would be willing to push the envelope with his recovery to ensure he could help Australian retain the Ashes, having not lost a Test series to England in almost a decade.

“I think this far out, it’s kind of hard to know, but again, we’re trying to make sure we’re doing everything right to be right for Perth,” Cummins said.

“It’s a big Ashes series. It doesn’t get much bigger. So I think you’re willing to take a few risks and be a little bit aggressive, to try and play as much Tests as you can.”

Plagued by back troubles as a youngster, Cummins missed more than five years of Test cricket after his debut in late 2011 but said he had no inkling of a serious back issue in recent times.

“I’ve bowled a lot over the last few years. So something was bound to happen at some point. But as I said, hopefully get this right, and don’t miss too much,” he said.

Cummins agreed that missing the marquee series would be a bitter pill to swallow, and as such he would be doing as much as possible to ensure that doesn’t happen.

“That would be devastating. So we’ll be doing everything we can to try and be right for that, and make a few decisions a little bit closer. But yeah, confident, do the rehab right and give it a good crack.”