The former England captain, Michael Vaughan, has backed the Australian captain, Pat Cummins, to get his old sharpness and rhythm back for the second day-night Test match against India at the Adelaide Oval in the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. The latter had an ordinary outing in Perth with the ball and shouldering the leadership responsibilities.
The home side suffered a massive 295-run defeat at the Optus Stadium, with the pressure grilling over the batters of the hosts. The batting department didn’t work in both innings, while the pacers and spinner, Nathan Lyon, seemed to be losing his mojo a bit in the second innings.
Michael Vaughan felt that the New South Wales bowler looked a bit rusty, having played his previous red-ball game in March against New Zealand. However, the veteran has backed him to do well as the series progresses.
“He’s a world-class performer, a brilliant captain, and a brilliant bowler. (But) the one thing I’ll say is he did look short of a gallop in the first Test.” The former opening batter for England expressed this during a discussion on the Follow-On.
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“He’d not been playing any cricket. He had not played any longer format cricket since March. So I would think this week in Adelaide, he will be up on his pace because of what he did last week.” Michael Vaughan highlighted.
Michael Vaughan dissects why Pat Cummins struggled during Perth Test
Having lost the toss, they bundled out India for just 150 in the first innings. The trio of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, and Mitchell Starc were all over the tourists but could hardly put their feet up before looking quite ineffective in the second innings when the Indian batters dominated by posting 487/6 declared.
The Manchester-born advised that the opening red-ball game of the BGT would have helped the Australian captain to change the mindset back into the five-day format.
“I think the first Test will be good for him. He’s got some overs back into his body, into his mind, playing the longer format back into his system, and I think he’ll be better for it.” Michael Vaughan stated.
The pace of the Sunrisers Hyderabad captain from the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 has dropped a bit, which has helped the Indian batters to read him even on a surface with sheer pace and bounce. The 50-year-old also discussed the same, besides remarking that the batters were getting extra time to adjust.
“Pace is a lot for Pat Cummins. If he is down to 135 (or so), I think it gives the batters that extra little bit of time to adjust to the movement and the accuracy that he produces.” The former Ashes-winning England captain added.
“We saw it in the Ashes, actually, a couple of years ago, that when England got after him, and when England got after Australia, England looked like a team that were dominating. The field was spread, and run-scoring became that much easier.” Michael Vaughan shed light.
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With no Josh Hazlewood for the second pink-ball Test match at the Adelaide Oval due to his side strain, they have included Scott Boland in the side. That shoulders enormous responsibility on Pat Cummins, who is the leader and also one of the experienced bowlers of the side with 272 wickets in 117 innings at an average of around 23 and a strike rate of 47.2.
The respective game is crucial for the home side on the point of aiming both the series victory and the World Test Championship (WTC) final qualification.
