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I knew I wouldn't make India: Cummins

Australia ODI quick hopeful he can play some Shield cricket before summer is out

Fast-bowler Pat Cummins said his 18-month absence from first-class cricket meant he knew he was no chance of being selected for Australia's upcoming tour of India.

The injury-plagued quick is enjoying an extended run of fitness for the first time in years and his strong return to the international stage in one-day cricket this summer has led the likes of Allan Border and Brett Lee to urge selectors to rush him back into Australia's Test team.

But Cummins was overlooked when Australia's squad for India was announced yesterday, with Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Jackson Bird the three frontline quicks in the touring party.

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Cummins said he knew he was at long odds for the tour and is instead focused on more white-ball cricket for Australia ahead of a return to the Sheffield Shield later this summer.

"I knew I wasn't going to be selected," Cummins said today after arriving in Perth for the third VB 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.

"Then that still leaves me time to play at least one Shield game."

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Cummins famously made his Test debut as an 18-year-old in 2011, taking seven wickets in a man-of-a-match performance against South Africa in Johannesburg.

It remains his only Test match to date and serious injuries have also restricted him to just eight first-class matches in total since his debut seven years ago.

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But he's hoping to add to that after the international summer of cricket ends on February 22 and he could be available for up to three Shield matches as well as the final for NSW Blues, should they make it.

Assuming Cummins plays every remaining white-ball match for Australia this summer, his earliest possible return to red-ball cricket would be the match against Tasmania starting on February 25, which will be 2,172 days since he last represented the Blues in first-class cricket.

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And it would be another small step in a summer that has seen him re-adjust his short-term goals on more than one occasion.

"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."