Last Update: February 04, 2023, 16:01 IST
Pat Cummins says Australia’s bowling attack has variety. (AP Photo)
Everyone is concerned about the spin-friendly pitches in India but Australia’s Test captain Pat Cummins wants people not to forget their world-class pace attack.
Australia are mulling over their bowling attack ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy starting on February 9 and they are yet to settle on a combination. Captain Pat Cummins, in his first media interaction on his arrival in India, revealed that the team is going out with an open mind and will focus on the attack only after seeing the Vidarbha pitch. Cricket Association Stadium.
While Cummins and co wonder about the nature of the pitch for the series opener, there has been a lot of talk about how the spinners will play a major role. Everything seems to revolve around the tweakers, given how they’ve historically dictated the end result.
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Australia look set for that as they have packed their squad with spinners including the much-experienced Nathan Lyon, who will have the likes of Mitchell Swepson, Ashton Agar among others for company.
Cummins feels that his team has a very diverse attack.
“When (Mitchell) Starsey comes back, we’ve got a lot of options here (finger spin, wrist spin, left-arm (fast)),” Cummins told reporters. Take 20 wickets. But how do we split it up? Well, we’re not 100 percent sure yet.”
The 29-year-old says that playing two specialist spinners in the playing XI is not possible and it will depend on the conditions.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a given. Obviously it’s very situation dependent. Especially in the first Test, once we get to Nagpur we’ll see,” he said.
“The good thing is someone like Agar was in our last team, Swepson has played the last two overseas tours so there is a bit of experience. Murphy had played in the previous tour. We think we got a lot of support in that department for Lyon.”
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Travis Head bowls really well off spin as well. We have to balance things. We have quite a variety to choose from. We haven’t locked any bowling line-up yet.”
Cummins, however, says people are forgetting Australia’s world-class pace attack which has performed in a variety of conditions.
“I think sometimes when talking about some of the spinners you forget how good many of our fast bowlers have been in all conditions. Even on some of the wickets at the SCG, there was more to the fast bowlers. No, but fast bowlers have found a way.”
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