Pat Cummins knew he 'wouldn't be selected' for India Tour

Melbourne [Australia], Jan. 17 (ANI): Australian pacer Pat Cummins, who has been out of the first-class cricket for 18 months, has said he knew that there was no chance of being selected for Australia's upcoming tour of India. "I knew I wasn't going to be selected," cricket.com.au quoted Cummins as saying after arriving in Perth for the third ODI against Pakistan on Thursday. "I haven't played a Shield game yet (this summer)." "But knowing I've got heaps of one-dayers and T20s and the possibility of a Shield game at the end of the season is pretty exciting .I'll hopefully play a Shield game sometime this year. We've got six (more) ODIs here and in New Zealand (over the next three weeks) and then there's three T20s (against Sri Lanka in February). I'd love to be a part of all that," he added. The 23-year-old has performed well with the white ball and has staged a strong ODI comeback that led many to tip the big quick for a Test recall next month but it wasn't to be the case. Cummins, who was adjudged Man of the Match in his Test debut as an 18-year-old in 2011 against South Africa in Johannesburg, is eager to get himself into contention for an Ashes call up though by playing as much Shield cricket as his ODI commitments will allow. "The start of the summer (my goal) was to get through to the New Zealand ODIs before Christmas and everything worked perfectly and it got me there," he said. "Since then we set another goal to get through the Big Bash and these ODIs and at the moment, that's pretty much all I'm thinking about and we'll re-assess after that." "If I get through all these eight one-dayers and bowl a lot of overs at a good intensity, that should get me ready for Shield cricket," he added. Earlier on Sunday, Cricket Australia announced a 16-member Test squad for the four-match India tour, which begins from February 23. Australian squad: Steve Smith (captain), David Warner, Matt Renshaw, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Peter Handscomb, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Matt Wade, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Jackson Bird, Nathan Lyon, Stephen O'Keefe, Ashton Agar and Mitchell Swepson. (ANI)