Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins believes that it is very hard for the fast bowlers to play all three formats successfully.

While the 25-year-old right-arm pacer has suffered many injuries in the cricketing career, he feels that the Australian summer is pretty brutal for the pacers as they always have to work hard.

Recently, Cummins told ESPNcricinfo, “I think it’s really hard. Especially for Australian bowlers it seems like our Test matches always go for basically the full five days and the bowlers are bowling lots of overs. I think certain tours, like India last year, in some games the pace bowlers didn’t bowl heaps of overs, Bangladesh the same. I feel like the Australian summer is pretty brutal, there’s lots of pretty flat wickets, hard wickets and it’s a lot of bowling.”

Cummins believes that any fast bowler needs to be 100% fit and confident to successfully play any particular format at a time.

He said on that, “It’s about finding that balance, you want to play as much as you can, you also need to keep bowling, you can’t just play a game and have a few weeks off. I’d love to play every single game for Australia, but realistically I think you get up for the Test matches and then make sure you’re 100% for the ODIs and then taking one series at a time. You’re making sure you’re 100% right to go but knowing if you’re not, it’s not worth it. There’s so much other cricket and so many other guys that are banging down the door, you can’t play unless you’re 100% right to go.”

As the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup is just less than a year to go, Cummins believes that the team will give higher importance in the 50-over cricket.

Talking about that, Cummins said, “I know for example this year we’re playing a lot more ODIs leading into the World Cup and therefore the schedule allows us to really put an emphasis on that and play lots of ODI cricket leading into the World Cup.”

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“I know Pat Howard, one of his big things talking about the schedule is trying to give us the best opportunity to perform in those big tournaments leading up. I’m sure for the T20 World Cup we’ll have the same, a bit more time where the T20 side can really play together, work out their combinations and have a good run in. Even now we’ve seen this tour [of England and Zimbabwe], its good there’s a big chunk of T20 cricket, getting five games in a few weeks with one team, one coaching staff all together. Hopefully we’ll see a bit more of that.”

Australian pace bowling trio Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc are looking to return in the national squad soon. They are hoping to feature in the UAE tour in October where Australia will play two Tests, five ODIs and only T20I against Pakistan.

Cummins said on that, “We’re still hoping to make the UAE. Hoff and Starcy and I are all on a pretty similar programme, we’re all hoping to start bowling by the end of July and that’ll give us a two or three-month lead-in to the Tests. We’re all on track for that, just got to get a final scan in a few weeks and get the final sign-off that my back’s alright.”

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Cummins further added on his fitness, “It’s one of those weird injuries in that you feel fine and I’m pain-free, don’t feel my back at all, but you’re basically dictated by a scan because it’s bone and a bit of a waiting game. You can try and rehab everything around it as much as you like, but you’ve just got to wait for it to be right. Still hoping to start bowling by the end of the month and be right for the UAE.”

As he feels the Test cricket is a brutal game, Cummins believes that the fast bowlers need to give time on themselves to build a strong ground.

The Aussie pacer claimed, “A Test match is brutal, especially over somewhere like there, it’s high intensity and you can be out in the field for a few days at a time, so it’s not a matter of getting right and then starting to bowl and playing a couple of weeks later, you do need a good two or three months of build-up. A nice gradual build-up and then be flat out to go is the plan. You’ve always got to be pretty careful with it.”