During the 2nd ODI between India and Australia at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, the temperatures soaring above 40 degree Celsius along with high humidity. The extreme conditions made it difficult for several players as towels and ice packs came out frequently on the field.

Recalling the difficult conditions, fast bowler Pat Cummins said, “It felt similar to Dhaka, I reckon, just below Chittagong. But that’s the hottest one-day game anyone said they’ve played. I think the 50 overs felt like it was about 200 overs out there. You only had to look at ‘Wadey’ (wicketkeeper Matthew Wade), it was 15 overs in and he was on all fours. So it’s not great conditions.”

He further elaborated, “You pretty much try and change all your clothes because they’re just sodden through with sweat. If you’ve got strapping you try and get that re-strapped. You just try and get one or two overs just to cool down and have some ice blocks, change all your gear and try and freshen up.”

However, Australian team ended up losing the second ODI as well after yet another batting collapse. Commenting on the same, Cummins said, “As a player and a teammate it’s frustrating when it’s out of your control. We got in a position in both games where we could’ve taken the game away from India. It was unfortunate that there was a couple of wickets but we’ve just got to try and find a way to fix that up.”

Cummins concluded, “There are still three games left so we can still win the series. I thought it was a great effort from the five or six bowlers. here were no big overs so I think to keep them to 250 on a really good batting wicket and batting conditions in the afternoon, I thought it was a great job.”