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Australia skipper Pat Cummins has flown back to Australia from the ongoing series of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India due to family health reasons after his team faced a disappointing six-wicket loss against India in the second Test at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, in Delhi.
Cummins is expected to travel to Sydney for a few days before returning back to India ahead of the third Test starting from March 1 at the Holkar Cricket Stadium, in Indore.
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India retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and has taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series after a convincing six-wicket victory over Australia in the second Test. After facing this big loss, Australia have an opportunity to regroup and prepare well with new plans in the series with a nine-day break before the start of the third Test.
In the second Test, Cummins was the only pacer for Australia in the playing XI as they went with three spinners – Nathon Lyon, Todd Murphy and the debutant left-arm spinner Matthew Kunhemann. Interestingly, Cummins did not bowl in the fourth innings of the second Test as India chased down a small target of 115 runs and wrapped up the match inside two and a half days.
Last week, Australian leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson also returned home due to the birth of his first child and was replaced in the Test squad by his Queensland teammate Kuhnemann. However, Swepson is now set to rejoin the Australian squad in India ahead of the third Test.
If required, Australia vice-captain Steven Smith can lead the side in the absence of regular captain Cummins, but it is unlikely that he will miss the third Test as he is expected to reach India before the start of the Test match.
In Cummins absence, Smith has captained Australia on two occasions since the 29-year-old fast bowler took over the Test captaincy in late 2021.
Before the start of the second Test of the 2021-22 Ashes series in Adelaide, Cummins was ruled out of the match and had to withdraw due to being in close contact with a Covid-positive person. He also missed last year’s pink ball day-night Test due to a quad injury against the West Indies in Adelaide.
With a long break of nine days between Tests, regular fast bowlers – Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood – will be aiming to get fit ahead of the third Test in Indore. Other pace bowling options for Australia are Scott Boland and Lance Morris.
Meanwhile, pace bowling all-rounder Cameron Green is also set to be available for the third Test after missing the first couple of Tests due to his fractured finger.
On the other hand, the fitness of opener David Warner will be closely monitored after he was ruled out of the second Test in Delhi Test due to a concussion. He also fractured his left elbow after getting hit by a bouncer from India pacer Mohammed Siraj on Day 1 of the second Test.
Cummins highlighted that further changes in the squad can be announced in the coming days as Australia analyse their team combination for making a comeback in this Test series after getting 2-0 down.
On Sunday, Australia were bowled out for just 113 in the second innings after resuming their innings on Day 3 at a score of 61/1 in 12 overs with Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne at the crease.
Surprisingly, Australia lost 9 wickets for 52 runs in the morning session with India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja running through Australia’s batting order and claiming his career-best figures of 7/42 in the second innings.
“Disappointed, we were ahead of the game but we slipped. Everyone controls their own game, some balls just have your name,” Cummins said after the defeat.
“But I think there will be a review. Shot choice, did we go about it the right way? I thought they bowled really well, it’s not easy out there, but perhaps some guys went away from their methods.
“Each batter has their own way to go about it. I don’t think there’s any one size fits all rule. Unfortunately, quite a few of us got out with kind of cross-batted shots, which might not be our preferred method,” he added.
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