In the next two months, captain Pat Cummins hopes to complete the last task by defeating India in a test series. As a member of great Australian teams, Cummins has won almost every trophy in cricket.
Despite enjoying numerous World Cup victories and Ashes victories in recent years, Cummins and several of his teammates have only experienced home and away defeat in the last four test series against India.
At Perth Stadium on Thursday, the eve of the test that opens the series, the fast bowler told reporters, “I think for about half the change-room, we haven’t won the Border-Gavaskar.”
For a lot of us, it’s kind of the last thing we need to do.
We’ve risen to the occasion and performed admirably in practically every challenge that has been thrown at us in recent years.
“It would kind of solidify this if we spent another home summer doing that for another year. It has been a two- or three-season series, but now it’s a half-generation series.”So we’re all excited India right out there …. one of the best teams in the world.”
Compared to the injury-plagued team that defeated the Tim Paine-captained Australians 2-1 in the previous trip in 2020–21, India will seem different in this five-test series.While usual captain Rohit Sharma takes time off to tend to his newborn child, pace leader Jasprit Bumrah will lead India in Perth.
A number of new players have joined the team, including left-handed batsman Devdutt Padikkal, who may be called up for his second test after Shubman Gill suffered a thumb injury.
According to Cummins, Australia was not taking any of the new players lightly and had plans for the entire India team.”Most of us have played IPL and seen how many newcomers come in and kind of step up straight away,” he explained. “They’re missing a couple of guys we’re more familiar with, but we know whoever they pick is going to be, or they obviously think they’re good enough for test cricket.”
Additionally, Australia will appear different because David Warner won’t be starting the batting.
The departed Warner was “hard to replace in many ways,” according to Cummins, but he hoped that Usman Khawaja and Nathan McSweeney, Australia’s new opening duo and former Queensland colleagues, would complement each other.
