It’s time to make amends: Pat Cummins on Test series against India

PTI, Sep 3, 2024, 2:19 PM IST

Melbourne: Australian captain Pat Cummins is looking at the upcoming five-match rubber against India as a chance to “make amends” for the successive Test series defeats at home against their fierce rivals.

He said the next Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which will start on November 22 in Perth, promises to be a 50-50 affair.

India retained the trophy in the last four series, from 2016-17 to 2022-23. India had defeated Australia in their own backyard in the last two series in 2018-19 and 2020-21.

Cummins said Australia are hoping to draw confidence from their win over India in the World Test Championships Final at London last year.

“The last two series here in Australia, we haven’t been successful, so it’s been a long time. Hopefully, it’s time to make amends,” Cummins told Star Sports.

“You know, we’ve played them (India) plenty of times where they’ve beaten us, but we’ve also had plenty of wins against them as well, which we’ll draw confidence from. The most recent Test match was, of course, the World Test Championship in neutral conditions, and we came out on top in that match.

“It’s always fiercely competitive, and it always feels like it’s 50-50. I’m 10 out of 10 excited for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy,” he added.

Senior batter Steve Smith agreed with the skipper and said it will a “big summer” for Australia against a “well-balanced” Indian team.

“…You know, it’s going to be a great series. You know, India have been playing outstanding cricket. We’ve been playing really good cricket the last couple of years. You know, we haven’t beaten India in the last two times they’ve come out here,” he said.

“Obviously got a terrific side, very well-balanced team, all bases covered. So, you know, they’ve played really good cricket out here. They’ve played good cricket when we’ve been over in India as well, where we know they’re very, very difficult to beat. So it’s going to be a big summer. It’s going to be an exciting one.” Pacer Mitchell Starc highlighted the importance of the rivalry by keeping it at par with the Ashes.

“For Australian cricket, you’ve got the Ashes and then you’ve got the Border Gavaskar Trophy in there. I mean there’s a long history in the Ashes but that Border Gavaskar rivalry, if you like, has just grown from strength to strength over each series.

“And now we see it as a five Test match series which is fantastic for not only the rivalry but for the Test series as well. Whether it’s the calibre of player, the calibre of matches that we see as fans and as cricketers just continues to grow strength on strength each series,” he said.

“Now (with) India obviously winning a number of series in a row, it’s created even a bigger rivalry between the two countries. I mean both teams are well known to one another, we play each other very often across the formats, so I’m sure it’ll be another exciting series,” Starc added.

All-rounder Glenn Maxwell said an India-Australia contest in any format has become a must-watch affair now. “I think over the last few years, definitely, it feels like the two teams sort of swap places in the rankings quite a bit. Whichever format it is, you will always see these two teams at number one at some stage around the world,” Maxwell said.

“The different contests we’ve had in both countries across all formats certainly provide a lot of highlights for the rest of the world. It’s always must-watch cricket whenever these two teams are playing.”