Take the shine off the new ball. Pat Cummins has charged debutant Nathan McSweeney and old stager Usman Khawaja with this most old-fashioned of tasks as Australia seek to wrest the Border-Gavaskar Trophy from India for the first time in a decade.
Cummins wants the new Test opening combination of McSweeney and the 38-year-old Khawaja to wear down the Indian bowling attack led by captain Jasprit Bumrah.
Cummins has vowed to wear down Bumrah and co.Credit: Getty Images
Except for the season of his “sandpaper” ban, this is the first summer since 2010 without the proactive David Warner setting the agenda at the top of the order, and Cummins rejected the concept of promoting Travis Head or Mitchell Marsh to fulfil a similar role.
Instead, he and the selectors settled on the more orthodox McSweeney.
“Davey’s very hard to replace in many ways, but the most important thing for someone like Nathan coming in is to play his own game. He doesn’t need to strike at 80 like Davey did, if that’s not his game,” Cummins said on the eve of the Perth Test at Optus Stadium, which is the first in a five-Test series.
Session times for first Test at Perth Stadium
- First session: 10:20am to 12:20pm local time (1:20pm to 3:20pm AEDT)
- Lunch: 12:20pm to 1pm (3:20pm to 4pm AEDT)
- Second session: 1pm to 3pm (4pm to 6pm AEDT)
- Tea: 3pm to 3:20pm (6pm to 6:20pm AEDT)
- Third session: 3:20pm to 5:20pm (6:20pm to 8:20pm)
- Extra 30 minutes if required. Play can go until 5:50pm (8:50pm AEDT)
“I’d love to see them bring the best out in each other, they’ve played and batted a bit together for Queensland. But for both it’s about bringing what they bring to the table. For Uzzy it’s those long innings, getting the bowlers to come back again and again, and I think Nathan is pretty similar in that regard.
“I’ll throw in Alex Carey at seven as well. It’s a pretty scary five, six, seven, I think. If they come in and the bowlers already have plenty of overs into them, it’s a pretty scary proposition, and similarly we’ve seen some counterpunches where we’ve been two, three or four down for not many.”
Cummins defended the decision for him, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Smith and Marnus Labuschagne not to travel to Perth for the ODI against Pakistan, asking for the players’ management to be judged at the end of the summer.
“This summer in particular, Perth ODI, 48 hours after playing in Adelaide, we just thought it was a bit high risk for our players to go there then fly back to Sydney then fly back here a few days later,” he said. “Some people might disagree.
Weather
“You might not necessarily see the benefits of it right away, but we’ve got five Tests then straight into Sri Lanka and lots of other cricket, so it might not be until a few months later that you see [missing] those extra four days of travel pay dividends.”
India to back Ashwin over Jadeja
India’s captain Bumrah did not offer much in terms of the team’s composition, but it has become clear that off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin would be preferred to the left-armer Ravindra Jadeja.
Ashwin was vital to India’s 2020-21 series victory, especially through getting on top of Smith and Labuschagne early in the contest, and batted bravely to salvage a vital draw at the SCG.
His ability to challenge batters in the air and with bounce – much like Australia’s spinner Nathan Lyon – makes him a challenge for the likes of Head. Bumrah did confirm that his pace offsider Mohammad Shami is tracking for a return to the Test side later in the series after resuming bowling in India.
“Shami has started to play cricket and is obviously an integral part of this team,” Bumrah said. “So I’m sure the management is also keeping a keen eye and hopefully things fall in place and you might see him here as well.”
Who’s the all-rounder, Marsh or Marnus?
Cummins insisted Mitch Marsh would be fully fit and available to bowl in Perth this week in a series where the pace bowling talents of Cameron Green will be missed.
But with his injury history and also the fact Josh Inglis is still working his way back into red-ball rhythm, the makeweight overs might well be delivered by the ever-enthusiastic Labuschagne. This is particularly likely should Cummins want someone to bowl a few overs of part-time bouncers.
“He’ll definitely bowl this Test, definitely available to bowl,” Cummins said of Marsh. “With the way us four bowlers are set out, we never really budget for an all-rounder bowling heaps, so I would imagine a few spells each innings, but he’s ready to go. His body is great, best it’s been for a while.
“[Marnus] has bowled some handy overs for Queensland, got leg spin, bowled off spin in the past and this year it’s pace bowling. I’m sure he’ll get the ball at some stage, and he’s been bowling quite a few bouncers as well, so that may be something we’ll turn to at some point.”
The fast men strike back
This will be Bumrah’s second Test as India captain in place of the absent Rohit Sharma, and he spoke openly of his advocacy for fast bowlers to take leadership roles more often in future.
“I’m one of the advocates for fast bowlers,” he said. “I don’t know what has happened in the past, but I have been a fan of fast bowling, that’s why I picked up being a bowler and I feel that physically it’s a lot more draining to bowl, but bowlers are quite smart as well. It’s not like they are not aware of where we’re heading.
“I’ve never followed a copybook plan in terms of my bowling. I go with my instincts and that’s how I’ve always played my cricket. I have a lot of faith in my instincts and gut. That’s what I go with.”
“In Australia, Pat has done a phenomenal job and got a lot of success, so there are a lot of models you could follow or take inspiration from. Kapil Dev did a fabulous job for India, a lot of other captains are there as well. So hopefully the start of a new tradition.”
Likely teams
Australia: Nathan McSweeney, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitch Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah (c), Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep.
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