'In Subcontinent, The New ball Does Nothing': Australia Captain Pat Cummins on His Strategy to Win Test Series in India

An in-form Australia have a big challenge ahead of them with just a few weeks remain before their resume Test duties against India next month. Not only have Australia not won a Test series in India since 2004, they have suffered successive series defeats at home against them too even as they boss over other opponents.

More recently, they clean swept West Indies 2-0 and then dismantled South Africa 2-0 (third Test ended in a draw) to cap off a memorable home summer. After nearly a month’s rest, the Pat Cummins-led side will embark on their India tour during which they will play four Tests for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

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Cummins, in an Amazon documentary titled ‘The Test’ revealed that he’s drawing inspiration from the class of 2004, led by Adam Gilchrist, that beat India 2-1.

“They won in India, they won in England. “That Test team (of 2004), no matter where they (went) in the world, they could adapt. That’s the gold standard. That’s what you aspire to.”

The documentary premieres on Prime Video this week, and it charts the success and failure of Cummins’ team since he took over as their Test captain during last year’s Ashes series at home till the tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Cummins shed light on how Australia plan to conquer the challenging subcontinent conditions where the new ball does ‘nothing’.

“In Australia, you keep the field in with the new ball, try and make the most of it. In the subcontinent, it’s the opposite. The new ball does nothing, so you put the field out to stop the ball just pinging off the bat and then you hope it starts reversing. Then you sense an opportunity, and that’s when you go ‘voom’,” he said.

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Test opener Usman Khawaja recalled how Australia started well but then let things slip out of their hands. “I thought we had the perfect game plan for the first Test and we probably should have won it,” Khawaja said.

“The process and everything we were doing was perfect. But then when we lost that (first) game, we started second-guessing ourselves and we had three different plans for three different games. And I think we’ve got to be really strong in our own belief to go with the plan that we have the first time is most likely the right plan.”

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