Last Updated on 1 week by Charbel Coorey
Australia captain Pat Cummins faced the media following his team’s heavy 295-run loss against India in Perth. It was a performance that drew widespread criticism from Australia fans, and the team now faces a huge fight to get back in the series in the second Test in Adelaide.
“Fairly disappointing,” responded Cummins to a question from Adam Gilchrist on how the last four days went. “We felt our prep leading in was really good, everyone was firing… Just one of those games. Not much went right, so a fair bit to look at ahead of next week.”
Cummins’ comments may come as a surprise to some given the sheer number of batsmen lacking form ahead of the series. Apart from under par returns in Test cricket over the past year, Steve Smith scored 3 and 0 in his lone Sheffield Shield appearance for New South Wales this season.
Marnus Labuschagne, who struggled significantly in the first Test, made scores of 77, 35*, 22 and 10 in the Shield along with low scores in both ODIs against Pakistan.
Usman Khawaja’s form also wasn’t crash hot, scoring 31, 64*, 0 and 9 in two Shield games this season for Queensland.
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Pat Cummins identifies areas for improvement after 1st Test in Perth and address speculation of rifts in the camp
After bowling India out for 150, Australia lost 7/67 in the evening of day one to hand the advantage back to the visitors. Cummins identified this as a key time of the game where Australia slipped up given the batting conditions improved significantly on day two.
“We didn’t really give ourselves a chance in a few different facets. I think late on day one, if you just got through that period, maybe the game looks a little different on day two, and obviously a couple of a big partnerships when we were bowling. There’s a few different areas we’ve got to clean up,” he said.
Later in the press conference following the match, Cummins was wary of making too many changes.
“After every Test match you look at what your best matchup is, but this is a sample size of one,” Cummins said. “Four, five days ago we thought this was our best XI, so I dare say nothing… there won’t be many changes going into Adelaide… but I’m not a selector, I’m sure they’ll get together after the game.”
Cummins was then asked about Josh Hazlewood’s comments after day three and whether there is a rift between the batsmen and bowlers. Hazlewood said, “you probably have to ask one of the batters that question” when answering a question about how the team will approach chasing the remaing 522 runs. Hazlewood then spoke about his preparation for the next test
Michael Vaughan said he has never seen an Australian player say that publicly. Adam Gilchrist went as far to way that may mean a rift in the dressing room. However, Cummins was quick to deny the rumours.
“Don’t know what Joshy said, but no not at all,” Cummins said. “There’s plenty of times where the batters have dragged us bowlers out of tight situations and we’ve done the same. So it’s a really tight unit, probably one of the tightest teams I’ve ever played with.
“We really enjoy playing cricket together, we’ve been through a lot over the last few years the core group, so no problems there, everyone gets along really well. So all good.”
The second Test in Adelaide will be a day/night fixture starting on December 6. The pressure is rising on an Australian side that has won just two of their past 11 home Tests against India.
