Pat Cummins will miss the first Ashes Test and could end up sitting out the whole series as Australia continue to sweat over the fitness of their captain.

The Aussie fast bowler has been sidelined with a back stress problem and has not played since the Test series against West Indies in July.

The Sydney Morning Herald , citing sources, reported that Cummins has had a scan on the issue, which, despite showing improvement, has not healed enough for him to be available for the opening Ashes contest, hosted in Perth on 21 November.

That has not been confirmed by Cricket Australia but there are now fears Cummins may not be able to feature in any of the five Tests, with the best-case scenario being described as a return towards the back-end of the series.

It acts as a potentially gutt

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