Australia captain Pat Cummins spoke about the intense workload for the Australian team for the next two months, including featuring in the World Test Championship final against India, saying his team prefers to be slightly underdone rather than being overloaded in playing matches.
Only two members from Australia’s squad – David Warner and Cameron Green – featured in IPL 2023, while Michael Neser, Steven Smith, Marcus Harris and Marnus Labuschagne played county matches.
It means that majority of the players in the WTC final squad, including Cummins, haven’t played a lot of competitive cricket since this year’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy series ended in early March in India. After playing in the WTC final, Australia will stay on in England to play in the five-Test Ashes series, ending on July 31.
“They (breaks) are rare to come by. So, we try and take a break when we can. I’ve always said that we have got six Test matches in the next two months, I’d much prefer to be slightly underdone than overdone.”
“That’s from a bowler’s point of view. I always feel like it doesn’t take too much to kind of get ready. And then I want to make sure I’m fresh physically for the matches,” said Cummins at a pre-game live event organised by ICC at The Oval, venue for the WTC final clash starting from Wednesday.
Cummins further said his team was ready for the challenge from India, especially coming after a three-day training camp in Beckenham. “We have had some really good training at Beckenham the last week. Obviously back home, we did a lot of training as well. So everyone’s come in, we’ve trained really hard, everyone’s rejuvenated, refreshed and pretty keen.”
Asked about his view on where Australia can try to get ahead in the marquee clash, Cummins remarked, “You need to know your moments to push for wickets. We need to get 20 wickets and there is no point trying everything in the first innings. We have plenty of bowlers to be used at different times.”
“Our playing group hasn’t played too many of those 50 Tests (at The Oval). We have played a few Ashes games, most of us. Few guys have scored runs and the bowlers have had some pace and bounce. So it should be good,” he concluded.
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