SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) – Australia fast bowler Pat Cummins has told England batsmen to prepare themselves for the barrage of short-pitched bowling that awaits them when the Ashes series begins next month.

The 24-year-old was brought home early from Australia’s ongoing limited overs tour of India to prepare for the Ashes where he is likely to partner Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood in a tall and fiery pace battery.
“Hope you practise your bouncers because we’ll be bowling a lot of them,” Cummins told reporters in Sydney yesterday in a warning to Joe Root’s side.
“No one really likes it if you’ve got real pace and real accuracy,” added the right-armer, who, like Starc, is capable of regularly exceeding 150 kph.
”They play on slower wickets, not as much bounce, so over here … it’s one of our biggest strengths.
”We grow up on these wickets and as bowlers getting bounce has always been really important.
”I think we’re lucky that there are a few of us who are all pretty tall and get a bit of bounce and like to bowl with a bit of pace.
“Hopefully the wickets have a bit of pace and bounce in them, there’s nothing like getting your adrenalin up and then running in trying to bowl short.”
Cummins made a sensational Test debut as an 18-year-old in South Africa six years ago but has since had his career blighted by injury, particularly to his back, and has played just four further Tests and a smattering of limited overs internationals.
Due to those injuries, the five-Test Ashes series, which starts on November 23 at the Gabba in Brisbane, would be Cummins first Test matches on home soil and he said he was keen to make a similar impression to that which Mitchell Johnson made on the 2013-14 tour.
“To watch ‘Johno’ do what he did, (he) kept the whole morale of the side and Australia up against the Poms almost single-handedly,” Cummins said of the left armer, who took 37 wickets at 13.97 as Australia swept the series 5-0.
“It shows the importance a really quick bowler can have and hopefully one of us three or four guys can do a similar job.”