Pat Cummins to return with tweaked action

Melbourne, October 18 - Australian quick Pat Cummins said on Sunday that he will look to tweak his bowling action when he returns to training later this summer after a long absence due to a serious back injury.

Cummins was ruled out of most of the upcoming season late last month when it was revealed that he had suffered a stress fracture in his back for the third time in his young career.

The 22-year-old is aiming to return to bowling early next year with a view to playing in the ICC World T20 in India in February and March. And he says he will look to make some slight changes to his action once his long rehabilitation period is over.

"Someone like Binga (Brett Lee) says even when you're 35 or 36 you're still trying to work out your action and fine-tune it," Cummins was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

"So, I think that's something I'll definitely have to look at. Nothing too major. Looking at a couple of replays, (my action) wasn't too bad. There were just a couple of little things that may have been a little bit tighter. But when I start bowling in a few months that's something I'll look at."

Cummins has been plagued by serious injuries throughout his young career, including a back stress fracture that forced him out of the entire 2012-13 season.

He returned to first-class cricket with Australia A in July 2013, but suffered a recurrence of the injury and missed the first half of the 2013-14 domestic season. The right-armer then re-entered the domestic ranks with a re-modelled bowling action that was designed to put less stress on his growing body.

He has been relatively injury free since then until this latest setback and was part of Australia's triumphant World Cup squad earlier this year. He is hoping to return to cricket as a batsman only in Sydney grade cricket in coming months before ramping up his preparation for the World T20 in the subcontinent.

"It's a pretty long lay-off but kind of hoping for towards the end of the season," he said.

"The T20 World Cup over in India in February-March is the main goal for me. But at the moment it's all about rest and trying to see how it recovers and responds and work out a plan after that."

(IANS)