UPDATE: Cummins speaks about chances of playing first Test

PL: The captain gives no guarantees but remains hopeful

Three months from the start of the Ashes, Pat Cummins is not bowling or running and has no clear picture on when he will be ready to play cricket again, but the Australian captain insists there is every chance he will play the first Test on November 21 in Perth.

Cornered by news crews during a “content capture” day in Brisbane, Cummins spoke for the first time about his mystery back ailment.

Nothing he said will alleviate Australian cricket fans concerns that he may miss the first Test.

Cricket has been awash with rumours that the injury is worse than Cricket Australia or Cummins’ report, but sources say that while the situation is unclear that they too remain confident he can get fit for the first Test.

Cummins told reporters he felt soreness in the West Indies and has had two scans since, the most recent showing signs of what Cricket Australia is calling “lumbar bone stress that will require further management over the coming months”.

“The back’s not too bad, it was a little bit sore after the West Indies, so I had a scan (there was) a little bit going on, we gave it another month, had a pretty quiet month to settle it down and I had another scan on Monday which (was) not terrible, but enough to know that there’s a little bit there and I’ve kind of got to be careful for the next litlte bit. It doesn’t feel too bad, but I’m obviously not bowling or doing much at the moment.

“Sometimes you may just get unlucky and you bowl lots of overs in, say, the World Test Championship final and that’s enough to start it, but through the West Indies I felt like it was a little sore but nothing [unusual] for a fast bowler. But once you get home and everything settles down, it hung around a little bit.

“With bone injuries you just want to settle it down, I’m still doing a little gym but no real running, no bowling. I’ll get that right and then will build up to the summer.

“We’ll kind of work back from the Ashes (to begin preparation). I’ll miss the white ball stuff but we’ve still got loads of time, there’s about 12 weeks until the next

Test, we’ll see how the next big pans out.”

Cummins gave no guarantees he would play any cricket before the first Test, but believes he can shortcut the load-building required to do that.

“This stage of my career I feel I can, probably get up speed a bit quicker than when I was 18 or 19. Back then you probably felt like you needed to play a couple of Shield games or one dayers, I’m pretty confident that even if I don’t play a Shield game I can get up to speed.”

Cummins conceded it was “hard to know” if he would be right for the first Test in Perth.

“It’s a big Ashes series, you’ve got to be willing to take a few risks, be a bit aggressive to try and play as much Tests as you can,” he said.