Australian pacer Pat Cummins, who is currently recuperating from a back problem, revealed the main problem for Australian bowlers plying their trade in all formats. The Australian speedster has bowled 670.3 overs since 2017 with only South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada outdoing him in this regard with 803.5 overs.

Cummins hasn’t played T20s for Australia since February in 2017 and it appears as though the 25-year-old has opted to sacrifice the shortest format of the game in order to maintain his fitness.

Speaking to ESPNCricinfo, Pat Cummins stated that since most of Australia’s Test matches end up being played till the 5^th day, the toll on their bodies is just brutal.

"I think it's really hard. Especially for Australian bowlers it seems like our Test matches always go for basically the full five days and the bowlers are bowling lots of overs," Cummins told ESPNcricinfo.

"I think certain tours, like India last year, in some games the pace bowlers didn't bowl heaps of overs, Bangladesh the same. I feel like the Australian summer is pretty brutal, there's lots of pretty flat wickets, hard wickets and it's a lot of bowling.

He then added that the most important thing is to find the proper balance and that while he would love to play in all formats, he knows that realistically he can only afford to be a 100% for Tests and ODIs.

"It's about finding that balance, you want to play as much as you can, you also need to keep bowling, you can't just play a game and have a few weeks off. I'd love to play every single game for Australia, but realistically I think you get up for the Test matches and then make sure you're 100% for the ODIs and then taking one series at a time.

“You're making sure you're 100% right to go but knowing if you're not, it's not worth it. There's so much other cricket and so many other guys that are banging down the door, you can't play unless you're 100% right to go."

With the World Cup up ahead next year, Cummins knows that the priority is ODI cricket from now till the beginning of the World Cup and then after that, with the World T20 to be played in 2020, the focus will again shift towards the shortest format of the international game.

"I know for example this year we're playing a lot more ODIs leading into the World Cup and therefore the schedule allows us to really put an emphasis on that and play lots of ODI cricket leading into the World Cup," Cummins said.

"I know Pat Howard, one of his big things talking about the schedule is trying to give us the best opportunity to perform in those big tournaments leading up. I'm sure for the T20 World Cup we'll have the same, a bit more time where the T20 side can really play together, work out their combinations and have a good run in.

“Even now we've seen this tour [of England and Zimbabwe], its good there's a big chunk of T20 cricket, getting five games in a few weeks with one team, one coaching staff all together. Hopefully we'll see a bit more of that."