Long-term deal a lure for durable Cummins

Durability might prove to be a major selling point for Pat Cummins when he renews his push for a long-term contract, having played more Test cricket than any of Australia's quicks since making his long-anticipated comeback.

Once considered too fragile to forge a career in cricket's most-gruelling format, Cummins – whose stunning 2011 debut in South Africa as a teenager was followed by years of injury struggles – has proven his doubters wrong.

Since making his Test return in last year's tour of India, Cummins has played 15 of a possible 17 Tests. A back injury earlier this year kept him out of the series against Pakistan in the UAE, as well as the IPL and an ODI tour of England.

Josh Hazlewood has played 14 during the same period and Mitchell Starc 11.

Cummins has made clear his desire to secure a long-term deal with Cricket Australia (CA) and intends to revisit the push before April's next round of central contracts.

All CA-contracted players are on one-year deals.

"As fast bowlers, we put ourselves through a lot," Cummins told AAP ahead of the Boxing Day Test against India.

"I guess every sport has long-term contracts so I just asked the question of seeing if I could do something longer term.

"I know next year, it's a really tight schedule around the IPL, so I opted out. But at the time, there was so much change, obviously 'JL' (coach Justin Langer) coming in and a new structure, so I think everyone was finding their feet and it got put off for a year."

Cummins had a million-dollar deal with Mumbai Indians last season but signalled he would be willing to forgo the IPL in favour of a longer-term national deal.

The 25-year-old looms as a key figure in a huge 2019 which includes a World Cup and Ashes series in the UK.

Cummins' superb run-out of Cheteshwar Pujara during the first Test in Adelaide was a potent reminder of the versatility he brought to the Australian team, having also earned a promotion to No.8 after working hard on his batting.

"I put a lot of pride in my batting," he said. "I know as a bowler how frustrating it is if the tail's hanging around and you're bowling more overs than I suppose you might think you had to at a certain point in time.

"Like most tailenders, I probably find it hard to score runs sometimes so, for me, it's just about trying to protect my wicket and face as many balls as I can."

Domain Test Series v India

Dec 6-10: India won by 31 runs

Dec 14-18: Australia won by 146 runs

Dec 26-30: Third Test, MCG

Jan 3-7: Fourth Test, SCG

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c, wk), Josh Hazlewood (vc), Mitch Marsh (vc), Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Archie Schiller

India squad: Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hardik Pandya, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk), Parthiv Patel (wk), Ravi Ashwin, Ravi Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar