Australia captain Pat Cummins, who claimed 5 for 57 against India, said that he feels “lucky” to have players like Travis Head, Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland in the team after Australia bounced India by 10 wickets in Adelaide to draw level in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. While Mitchell Starc claimed 6 for 48 in the first innings, his best Test figures, Boland replaced Josh Hazlewood who was sidelined with a side strain, finishing with five wickets in the match as well.
“We’re so lucky he [Travis Head] is on our side because as a captain, I wouldn’t know how to bowl to him or set fields to him,” Cummins said. “He really took the game out of their [India’s] hands. You know, he’s done it time and time again for us in many different formats. He’s super impressive.”
On Starc and Boland, Cummins said: “Some of the talk this week was about whether we have enough bowling. Particularly that day one, thought it was a herculean effort from Starcy and Scotty. It was hot, close to 40 degrees, humid and basically just kept rotating the bowlers all day. Huge effort from those guys, showed their class, I feel very lucky as a captain to have those guys and then having someone like Lyon who we didn’t even need to call on. Feels like I’ve got a lot of tools at my disposal.”
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However, Australia came into the Test match under a lot of pressure, having lost the first Test to India in Perth but their skills with the pink ball worked well against India’s in Adelaide, leading them to their 12th win in 13 day-night Tests as well.
“Great week. Great to level the series,” Cummins again said. “This week we were back to our best, the team I remember and how we want to play our cricket, so really satisfying. I was pretty pumped up. Probably felt like some big wickets in the context of the match. Especially the pink ball, feels like the margins have been quite small so maybe just pretty excited, more so than normal.”
“That was really gutsy what those guys did on that first night,” Pat Cummins said. “You look back to Perth, it’s those small moments that if you win them and suddenly you wake up the next day and it’s a different day. Think that was a really good lesson and it was really gutsy to get through that period and meant some of the other guys later on could cash in. It’s going to plan so far. Fairly confident he’ll be right for Brisbane. We’ll know more in the next couple of days. If someone needs to make way, they’ll be pretty unlucky.”
