Cummins eyes rest as Stokes urges England to fight on

Australia secured a dominant series win over England as they secured an unassailable lead of 3-0 with an impressive showing in Adelaide as they won by 82 runs powered by Alex Carey and Travis Head’s brilliance. The win also gave them a significant advantage in the ICC World Test Championship standings.

However, captain Pat Cummins has prompted a shift from results to resilience as the hosts assess potential options for the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.

“As for the rest of the series, we’ll see,” the Australia Test skipper told the reporters with respect to his availability for the remainder of the series.

“We had a pretty aggressive build-up knowing that there’s an Ashes [series] there to be won, and we thought that was worth it.

“I doubt I’ll be playing Melbourne, and then we’ll have a chat about Sydney,” said Cummins.

This was the pacer’s first outing since the series against West Indies in July.

After a back injury nearly derailed his return during the Ashes, the pacer looked at ease on his international return as he picked three wickets in each innings with figures of 3/69 and 3/48.

With Nathan Lyon seemingly picking up a hamstring injury and Cummins focusing on his fitness, the home side could be seeing up to three changes for the next Test in Melbourne as star batter, Steve Smith still recovers from the illness that kept him out of the Adelaide Test.

Speaking on his performance in the game, Cummins said, “First of all, I felt great, Just like a normal Test match. Bowling mid-30 overs, if anything, because I came into this Test match quite fresh, I feel my legs are still decent.”

Cummins pushed his side to press on for a 5-0 series whitewash.

“We’ll save this for a few days when we get closer to Boxing Day - people start thinking it’ll be pretty cool to push on to 4-0 and then Sydney do it 5-0.”

Pat Cummins celebrates the wicket of Joe Root in the third Test of the Ashes in Adelaide. //Getty Images

While England showed grit and resilience on the final day, it looked as if they had abandoned their characteristic aggressive approach in favour of a more tempered outlook.

England captain Ben Stokes stated that the side's batting tactics were merely reflective of how the side wanted to play their cricket.

“The big learning from individuals in this game, and that’s an evolution for some guys in this team, you never want to take away their ability to go out score their runs in the way that they think is best going to suit them,”

“Marrying the skills and the ability they have with the mentality it takes to be an international sportsman - put those two together and I know we’ve got a very exciting Test team, who can be even more successful than we have been in the last four years,” he added.

He praised his side’s resolve despite the series loss but assured that their competitive edge remained intact.

“Obviously that dream that we came here with is now over, which is incredibly disappointing,”

“But we aren’t going to stop.”

England will now be looking to avoid a series whitewash as they head into the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, beginning on December 26.

Ashes schedule

First Test: Perth Stadium, November 21-22 (Australia won by eight wickets)

Second Test: Gabba, December 4-7 (Australia won by eight wickets)

Third Test: Adelaide Oval, December 17-21 (Australia won by 82 runs)

Fourth Test: MCG, December 26-30

Fifth Test: SCG, January 4-8