Pat Cummins eyes Sheffield Shield return as he hopes to find extra pace for India series this summer

With a blockbuster five Test series against India just around the corner, Australian captain Pat Cummins is eyeing a return to the Sheffield Shield as he plans to freshen up and return to top pace.

Pat Cummins expects to return to the Sheffield Shield for the first time in almost four years and hopes an extended pre-season will help him regain pace before the blockbuster Test series against India this summer.

Having spent just 50 hours at home between early February and arriving back from his Major League Cricket stint last month, the Australian Test skipper will enjoy a rare extended stay in Sydney after being rested for next month’s white-ball tour of the UK.

While the superstar quick has no plans to quit either white-ball format internationally, he said Test series and ICC events would remain his key focuses and other cricket would fit in sparingly around the showpieces.

Cummins, 31, has never been part of a winning Border-Gavaskar Trophy series so his energies will be channelled towards finding top gear for the first Test in Perth, which starts on November 22.

With Cummins missing the white-ball series against Scotland and England, his next competitive match is likely to come in the Shield, when he will add to his nine matches for NSW in the four-day competition, the last of which was in February, 2021.

The Blues have four Shield matches before the first Test, while Australia also has three one-dayers and three T20s against Pakistan in November leading up to the India series.

Pat Cummins last played for the Blues almost four years ago. Picture: Getty Images

Though yet to finalise the specifics of his build-up to the summer, Cummins said he was likely to play at least one Shield match before confronting the tourists.

“Ronnie (coach Andrew McDonald) called me the other day and said we need to talk about this,” Cummins said.

“I prefer to go a little bit fresher but definitely play some cricket going in. So I’d say it’s either two or three ODIs, plus a Shield (game) or maybe just some Shield, maybe some NSW one-day stuff.

“I imagine kind of late October/early November will be when I start playing building up for the Tests.”

Pat Cummins has never been a part of a winning test series against India. Picture: Getty Images

Having played 20 Tests, three World Cups and an Indian Premier League season between late 2022 and the middle of this year, Cummins is relishing the chance to prepare his body for the next block of five Tests against India and two in Sri Lanka across late January and early February.

Able to bowl consistently in the high 130km/h to low 140km/h range in Test cricket across recent seasons, Cummins is optimistic the work he puts in across the next two months will leave him well placed to more closely resemble the speeds he nudged when he bursted on to the scene more than a decade ago.

Pat Cummins says he is ‘very unlikely’ to play for the Thunder this season. Picture: Getty Images

“I actually think I’ll find a few extra Ks just by just getting a little bit fitter and stronger, less fatigue in the body,” Cummins said.

“Sometimes it might take me an over or two to kind of get up to top speed.

“Hopefully by the start of the summer, from ball one you’re good to go and you recover better and all those things.”

The short gap between the India and Sri Lanka series means Cummins is again “very unlikely” to play in the Big Bash League. He was contracted to play for the Sydney Thunder last summer.

After enjoying his US experience with the San Francisco Unicorns, Cummins is relishing the chance to find some normality in his life given the calendar of the past two years.

Pat Cummins launched his own sports drink, PACE. Picture: Mark Stewart

“Having weekends, walking down the beach, walk around the corner for coffee,’’ he said.

“(Son) Albie’s going to start daycare a couple of days a week. So dropping him off, picking him up, which he hasn’t really been able to do because we’ve been on the road so much.

“Clicking on the footy on Friday night, Saturday night. Just having a bit of routine, sitting on a couch occasionally. It’s all the stuff that a lot of people might find mundane.”

Cummins will also be self-fuelled this summer, having launched his own brand of sports drink – branded PACE.

“The idea was born to try and bring out our own sports drink that I think most athletes would drink, so zero sugar,’’ he said. “It’s got all the good stuff, natural.

“It’s been a year or so of testing and trialling different flavours and different ingredients and got to a place where we’re really happy with it and I think we’ve done a great job, so pumped to launch it.”