Melbourne: Australia pacer Pat Cummins feels his team is far better prepared and equipped to face Team India than last time when Virat Kohli and men travel Down Under later in the year.
India, under Kohli in the 2018/19 series, became the first Asian side to beat Australia in a Test series in their own den. The series featured stellar performances from batsmen Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant and Kohli and the fast bowling battery featuring Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma.
“I think we’ll be ready for them this time,” Cummins told cricket.com.au
Australia were without the services of Steve Smith and David Warner in the last series as both were serving their bans handed over to them by Cricket Australia for their involvement in the Sandpaper Gate controversy. However, the duo would, in all likelihood, in the squad, thus providing strength to the batting unit of Australia.
“Everyone’s a little more experienced this time because obviously we’ve got a couple of class batters back in the side and someone like Marnus (Labuschagne) has played a bit more and done brilliantly,” Cummins said
“So I feel like we’re in a better position,” he added.
The World No. 1 Test bowler also said that the Australia bowling unit will need to “take their medicine” to outlast Pujara in the home series this summer.
Pujara was one of the defining factors of India’s historic win over Australia in 2018/19. He was the top scorer in the series with 521 runs and faced a whopping 1258 balls.
“He (Pujara) had a mammoth series for them (in 2018-19). He’s one of those players that’ll take his time, he’s in his own little bubble and he doesn’t get disturbed by too much,” Cummins said.
“We’ve got to find a way to outlast him if he bats the way he did last time. There wasn’t too much in the pitch so you couldn’t manufacture anything. So I think (we need to) take our medicine a bit more and try and outlast him,” he added.
The right-arm pacer is also hoping that unlike last time, Australian pitches will assist the hosts pacers so that they can disrupt the concentration of the Indian middle-order batting mainstay.
“But we’ll wait and see. Hopefully the wickets are a bit bouncier (and) we’ve got a few more options,” he said.
“They (India) showed us what you have to be, what level you have to be at, to be the best team in the world,” he added.
IANS
