Pat Cummins ' Ashes preparation has been compromised after a scan revealed lumbar bone stress in his lower back which has ruled him out of the three white-ball series against New Zealand and India leaving the potential that he won't play any cricket ahead of the Ashes.

Cummins, Australia's Test and ODI captain, has not played since the Test tour of the Caribbean where his bowling workloads were significantly lower than usual. He missed the five T20Is against West Indies and both series against South Africa that followed which was a long-held plan to given him a 10-week physical build-up to the Test summer in a similar vein to last year.

But Cummins had experienced some back soreness post the Caribbean tour that lingered much longer than expected and a routine scan on his lower back on M

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