Australia should play Cummins at Gabba if he's ready: Mark Taylor

Australia's stand-in captain, Steve Smith, was expected to announce the team for the Gabba Test at a Wednesday press conference. However, he said he would not name the team, noting that several decisions were still pending, as per WWOS..

The biggest topic was Pat Cummins, who missed the first Test due to a back injury but could be in contention to return for Thursday's pink-ball Test, even though he wasn't included in the squad for the second Test announced last week.

Smith said Cummins was bowling well and anything was still possible.

"He looks pretty good to me, the way he has bowled in the nets. Obviously, games are different intensity, but he's tracking really nicely and knows his body well and we'll wait and see," Smith said.

Mark Taylor said that if Pat Cummins is fit, it would be difficult to exclude him from the team.

"I tell you right now, if Pat Cummins is ready to go, it'd be hard to leave him out," Taylor said as quoted by the Wide World of Sports.

Mark Taylor suggested that if Australia fields a full-strength bowling attack, including Cummins, Starc, Boland and others, they could adopt an aggressive strategy to win the Test, which he favours, as a 2-0 lead would make them nearly unbeatable.

"Because if Australia picked him tomorrow, and he's bowling at his best, and all of a sudden you add in obviously Mitch Starc who's probably bowling as well as he's bowled in his career right now, and Scotty Boland, who found the right length the other day in Perth, you add him to that combination, and you've got obviously (Cameron) Green, maybe (Beau) Webster, Nathan Lyon... Australia might go all out attack to try and win this Test match, which I rather like, because if they go 2-0 up, they're just about unbeatable."

"It'd be very hard for England to win the last three Test matches in Australia to win the series, so I don't mind that. If Pat Cummins is ready to go, I'd be saying let's get him in, let's go for the jugular," Taylor added. (ANI)