Star quick Pat Cummins has defended his decision to rest from numerous white-ball games for Australia, arguing his preparation for the four-Test battle against India has been perfect.
The world's No.1 Test ranked bowler sat out Australia's dead-rubber ODI and the entire three-match Twenty20 series against India.
The move drew criticism from Australian legend Shane Warne, who questioned why Cummins would rest two matches into the international summer.
But Cummins said he and the Australia hierarchy agreed it would be the best thing for him due to the challenges of long stints in COVID-safe bubbles.
The 27-year-old played in the Indian Premier League, arriving in Dubai immediately following a white-ball series in England in September.
Cummins had barely got out of quarantine after travelling back from the IPL before he was bowling to Virat Kohli in an ODI at the SCG.
"We've said for months that there's going to be times where players may need a couple of days or a couple of games off, especially our three-format players," Cummins said.
"It was planned before the series and no doubt you'll see that (with many players) over the next however long.
Every season there's always a few games that players might rest from ... it's nothing new and been done plenty of times before.
"I had a good balance between downtime and rest (back in Sydney) ... but still training and I had a couple of good hit-outs to build some strength up preparing for this pretty long stint coming up.
"If you could pick out the perfect preparation, it was pretty close to it given all the circumstances."
