Cummins, Marsh to miss Test tour of West Indies

Sydney, Mar 1 (ANI): Pat Cummins and Shaun Marsh, who were till recently regarded as the new strength of the Australian team, are all set to miss the Test tour of the West Indies.

In a meeting with national selector John Inverarity, Marsh was told he needed to use the winter, and perhaps a county stint in England, to rebuild his batting and his confidence after a bad Test series against India, and will not be considered in the immediate future, while Cummins last week had a setback in his recovery from a bone-stress injury in his foot.

Neither will be seen again at Test level until next summer at the earliest, although Cummins hopes to be available for the winter one-day internationals in England.

The fast bowler has not played international cricket since his man-of-the-match performance on Test debut in Johannesburg in November, and felt soreness in his heel after bowling in the nets in Sydney last week, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

The selectors had hoped to include him in the limited-overs squads for the Caribbean as part of his development, but now he cannot be considered for the Tests, either.

"No, he won't. For a fast bowler to be fit for a Test match, there are workload issues, you need a prolonged build-up in workload and he's not going to make it," Inverarity said.

Marsh, along with other axed batsmen Phillip Hughes and Usman Khawaja, may struggle to retain his Cricket Australia contract when the number of retainers is slashed as part of the new performance-based system, for which negotiations have begun with the Australian Cricketers' Association.

"Shaun had rather a traumatic time [against India] and I was speaking to Shaun the other day. He needs to rebuild himself and it's not going to happen overnight," Inverarity said. (ANI)