Pat Cummins is once again eager to compete against India at the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, starting November 22, after the rivalry between the two sides grew stronger after their meeting the World Test Championships final and the 2023 World Cup final.

The Australia captain was allowed to take a two-month break from national duty, his first in two years, as he will return for the One-Day International (ODI) series against Pakistan and one of four Sheffield Shield matches for NSW ahead of the India series, hoping to be in a good position ahead of the much-anticipated contest.

“I’ve got those ODIs, aiming to absolutely be part of that series,” Cummins told Cricket Australia.

“I would say at least a NSW one-day game, if not a Shield game, before the ODIs.

“The priority at the moment is to smash out some gym work and start reassessing in a few weeks a path forward.

“I’m just trying to fill up the bucket again after two years of non-stop bowling. (Hoping) come that first Test in as good of a position as I have been in for a few years.”

The 31-year-old featured for the San Francisco Unicorns in the Major League Cricket (MLC) semi-finals and was earlier bought for INR 20 crore by the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Talking about featuring in franchise T20 leagues, he said: “This was an interesting year in this gap leading into the summer was always planned,”

“MLC popped up late, and when we were talking through the schedule didn’t change the prep leading into the summer.”