Pat Cummins to play Sheffield Shield after five years to prepare for Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024/25

Pat Cummins will captain Australia in the home Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024/25 series against India.

Australia captain Pat Cummins and star pacer Josh Hazlewood are set to return to Sheffield Shield, barring any injury or change of plan, after a gap of five years in a bid to prepare for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024/25.

Cummins and his teammates will leave no stone unturned in order to be best prepared for the high-voltage five-match Test series against India.

The Sheffield Shield competition will start on October 8. The Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024/25 series will get underway on November 22 and before that the Aussie stars will have a maximum of four Sheffield Shield matches to play apart from a couple of practice games.

On Thursday, Cricket Australia announced the schedule for the domestic season. This includes seven Sheffield Shield games, four of which will be played before the Border-Gavaskar series.

Pat Cummins to skip white-ball tour of UK to be fresh for BGT

Pat Cummins and Hazlewood have not featured in the premier domestic red-ball tournament since 2019, while Mitchell Starc last played in it in 2020/21 season. Senior all-rounder Mitchell Marsh has featured in only two Shield matches since 2019. Senior batter Steve Smith, who is now Australia’s Test opener after David Warner’s retirement, didn’t play Shield matches in the last three seasons.

Cummins will be skipping Australia’s tour of UK, which includes white-ball matches against Scotland and England. Starc has been named in the squad to take on England and Hazlewood in both squads.

Australia last won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in the home series in 2014/15. Since then, they have lost two home and two away series to India. India are the only Asian team in history to have won a Test series in Australia, and they have done it twice.

India vs Australia, Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 schedule:

• India vs Australia, 1st Test: November 22-November 26, Perth
• India vs Australia, 2nd Test: December 6-December 10, Adelaide
• India vs Australia, 3rd Test: December 14-December 18, Brisbane
• India vs Australia, 4th Test: December 26-December 30, Melbourne
• India vs Australia, 5th Test: January 3-January 7, Sydney

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