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‘They showed us what you have to be’ – Cummins says Australia ready for India challenge

Cummins India
by Wisden Staff 2 minute read

Pat Cummins feels that Australia are ready to take on the India challenge at home, and in “better position” compared to the previous tour of Virat Kohli and team, expressing confidence in the home team avenging their 2-1 Test series loss in 2018/19.

Cummins, the No.1 ranked bowler in the ICC Test rankings, feels that he has learnt a lot since India last visited, and their batsmen, particularly Cheteshwar Pujara, ground Australia down on insipid pitches.

“There were a few lessons; the first lesson I learnt was how brutal Test cricket is,” Cummins told cricket.com.au. “They might bat all of day one and there’s nothing that’ll stop them batting all day two unless we take wickets, which they did a few times.”

“They showed us what you have to be, what level you have to be at, to be the best team in the world.”

Pujara’s doughty batting was one of the highlights of India’s historic series triumphs – in the four Tests, he racked up 521 runs at 74.43, posting three hundreds. Cummins acknowledged that the Australian bowlers will have to play the waiting game when dealing with Pujara, who consumed as many as 1,258 deliveries on the tour.

“He had a mammoth series for them,” Cummins said. “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. 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.”

Overall, Australia’s batting appears healthier with the return of David Warner and Steve Smith, as well as the meteoric rise of Marnus Labuschagne.

“I think we’ll be ready for them this time,” he said. “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 has played a bit more and done brilliantly. So I feel like we’re in a better position.”

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