Only Kagiso Rabada has bowled more overs in international cricket in the last 15 months than the Australia speedster, who is plotting his Test comeback in October against Pakistan following a back injury.

Josh Hazlewood (back) and Mitchell Starc (right leg) are also recovering from stress-related injuries sustained towards the back-end of last summer, and their absence has been felt in England and Zimbabwe.

Cummins is still awaiting further tests on his back injury and admits it’s a waiting game as he bids to return to fitness against Pakistan in the UAE.

“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,” he said.

“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.

Whilst it remains unlikely that Cummins will turn his back on the five-day game at this stage of his career, he does have major concerns about the workload of fast bowlers in the game’s longest format.

“A Test match is brutal, especially over somewhere like there (UAE),” he said. “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 … and then be flat out to go.”