New Delhi: The year 2023 for Pat Cummins was nothing short of magical and miraculous as he led the Australian team to a World Test Championship (WTC) victory, retaining the Ashes, and also winning the prestigious ODI World Cup. However he is yet to experience a Test series win over India, either away or at home, and this is one of those streaks that he wants to break this summer. And what better opportunity than doing it on your home soil?
Rohit Sharma-led Team India will tour Australia for the five-Test Border Gavaskar Trophy and Cummins is looking forward to beating the visitors to “tick one big thing off” his list. “It’s kind of the one big thing that I want to tick off. Particularly winning at home. Most Australians, me included, expect us to do well whenever we play at home,” Cummins spoke to AAP on Tuesday.
“We’ve lost the (last) two series against them (in Australia), so this is a big one. We feel like our team’s in a really good place, so we’ve got no reason why we shouldn’t perform really well. I just always expect us to do well against whoever we play. But India, particularly, is a big year, big season,” Cummins added as quoted by Cricbuzz, reflecting in India’s dominance in Test cricket.
Who’s leading the BGT record?
Australia last lifted the Border Gavaskar Trophy back in 2014, at home, when they beat India 2-0 in a four-match series. Since then, the two teams played out four rubbers and India have won all of them including two wins at home. However, Rohit will be bringing an unconfident squad to Australia whose confidence has been dented a bit following their first home Test series loss in 12 years (vs New Zealand).
Cummins is thinking of using this setback in Australia’s favour as it will help them keep the visitors quiet when the series starts in Perth on November 22. Cummins further added that any time a team is under pressure, it isn’t bad if your team plays against them, and considering India’s dominance in the 2020-21 tour, he said that their job will be to try and “keep them quiet”.
