Overview

• Durham coach Ryan Campbell says Ben Stokes has resumed batting in the nets, with his bowling workload to build more slowly under careful management.
• Campbell reports Mark Wood is “extremely close” to playing and could feature for Durham next week following knee surgery.
• Australia captain Pat Cummins is resting a lumbar bone stress issue and aims to be bowling at least a month, possibly six weeks, before the Perth Test, with no bowling scheduled for the next few weeks and a likely skip of Shield matches.
• Cummins expresses confidence in Australia’s pace depth despite injuries to Lance Morris and concerns over Jhye Richardson, naming Scott Boland, Michael Neser, Brendan Doggett and Sean Abbott as options.
• Josh Hazlewood dismisses talk of the veteran pace trio winding down, saying he, Cummins and Mitchell Starc still have more Tests ahead.