Pat Cummins could yet reclaim the captaincy and a place in Australia’s XI for the second Ashes Test in Brisbane, with selectors set to make a final call after one more look at the Gabba pitch on Wednesday afternoon.
Stand-in skipper Steven Smith stopped short of confirming the side during his morning press conference, saying only that “a whole heap of things I think are on the table”. That uncertainty keeps the door open not just for Cummins, who is working back from a lower-back stress injury, but also for a possible change in balance that might leave Nathan Lyon on the sidelines for a second successive day-night match.
Australia must also plug the gap left by injured opener Usman Khawaja. Josh Inglis is tipped to slot into the middle order ahead of Beau Webster, with Travis Head prepared to move to the top. Even that, Smith admitted, is not locked in: “We’ll wait and see what the wicket looks like, and from there we’ll determine a playing XI.”
Cummins was omitted from the original 14-man squad named last Friday, yet never officially ruled out. He has impressed teammates and staff with lively spells in Perth and Brisbane nets since resuming bowling. Smith noted, “He looks pretty good to me the way he’s bowled in the nets. Obviously, games are a different intensity, for sure, but he’s tracking really nicely. He knows his body well, and yeah, we’ll wait and see.”
One scenario has Cummins replacing Brendan Doggett. The risk, of course, is managing overs for a fast bowler who has not played a competitive match since July. Medical staff may feel more comfortable if Australia go with four quicks, keeping workloads down by sharing them, particularly under the pink ball where seam tends to dominate. Dropping Lyon would point in that direction.
Lyon was omitted from the last day-night Test in Jamaica and bowled just one over in Adelaide’s pink-ball fixture against India the previous year. In Hobart during the 2022 Ashes he did not send down a single delivery, and he managed only two overs in the first Test in Perth last week as England were rolled for 67.3 overs across two innings. His 50-over stint in the 2024 Gabba day-nighter shows he can endure long spells here, yet there is no guarantee he plays.
“I’m not sure,” Smith said when asked whether the off-spinner was assured of selection. “We’ll look at the surface, as I said, and we’ll sum things up from there. And I think here’s a place where Nathan’s done really well in the past. He’s a quality bowler. But we’ll weigh up the options and we’ll see how we go.”
The surface itself has attracted almost as much attention as the line-up. From a distance it still looks more emerald than straw, and Smith’s early inspection backed up that view. “It’s still quite grassy, a little soft,” he said. “It’s obviously going to bake under the sun again today, and I…” Smith trailed off, leaving reporters to draw their own conclusions about how quickly the pitch might harden and how much – if any – assistance it will provide Lyon.
Warm, dry weather is forecast for the opening three days, so a surface now green could easily brown off. If the pitch does flatten, Australia may decide a specialist spinner is essential in the final innings. If it continues to favour seam, though, the temptation to unleash four quicks – with a fresh-from-the-nets Pat Cummins at the helm – will be considerable.
Whatever combination Australia settle on, the call is expected late on Wednesday, just in time for the team sheet. Balanced attack or all-pace barrage, Cummins or Smith with the armband, Lyon in or out – plenty still to play for before the first ball swings under lights at the Gabba.
