Australia’s record at home, of not conceding a series to India, will be at stake when the two sides face off in the final Test of the four-match series in Sydney from January 3.
The home side’s most successful pacer in this series, Pat Cummins, is aware of what Australia will be up against, terming the current scoreline of 2-1 in favour of India as a “fair reflection” of Australia’s performance against the top-ranked side in the world.
With India having already retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy following their victory in the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, Cummins said Australia will be keen to make amends at the SCG in their attempt to square the series.
“We spoke at the start of the series about the record that we’ve got to try to hang onto,” Cummins said on Tuesday (January 1). “2-1 is a pretty fair reflection of how we’ve played the series so far, you can see why they’re the No. 1 Test side in the world. Not only at home but they also travel really well.
“We saw it in England, they played well over here, they just seem to adapt really well. If we can get a win up here and make it 2-2 in the series, I think that’s a pretty good result against the best side in the world, and what is a pretty inexperienced [Australian] side compared to previous years. Everyone’s desperate, everyone knows what the record is and can’t wait to try to rectify what’s happened so far,” Cummins said.
Apart from the failure of their top order to come up with big scores, the Australian pacers have also struggled with the old ball, with their Indian counterparts proving to be better in terms of their wicket-taking abilities once the ball has lost its shine.
“I think on day one and two when we bowled the [MCG] wicket wasn’t as abrasive and that makes a big difference. We tried bowling some cross-seamers and it just didn’t seem to scuff up as much as a couple days later,” reasoned Cummins. “Sometimes you get a ball that goes, sometimes it doesn’t, no doubt they bowled really well with it, present a really good seam. And probably more suited to those conditions. To be honest I don’t really remember getting too much reverse swing last summer in the Ashes. I didn’t feel like it played a massive part. “I know last summer, traditional swing, there was pretty much none. And we thought reverse swing was probably the only way we’re going to get side[ways] movement, and it didn’t really happen at all last summer either. So we know we’re going to be out there for quite a while bowling, it’s a really good team. The wicket’s pretty dry. So reverse swing’s a pretty big factor, especially I’d say for the other two, Joshy [Hazlewood] presents a really good seam, we know what [Mitchell] Starcy does, but it just hasn’t been a massive player so far,” Cummins said.
