India vs Australia: ‘We could challenge his defence’ - Pat Cummins explains how Aussies tackled Cheteshwar Pujara in Adelaide
India vs Australia: Speaking to reporters, Cummins explained how the Aussies tackled the Cheteshwar Pujara threat
Australia put on a tremendous bowling performance in Adelaide and somewhere in between all the criticism of India’s batting performance, one tends to forget that. India were bowled out for 36, but the chief architects of the devastation and the complete change of script on Day 3 of the first Test were Aussie speedsters Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.
The two pacers picked up four wickets each on Day 3 in the first session to set themselves up for a win. Going into the Day/Night Test, one of the biggest threat for Australia was Cheteshwar Pujara.
Pujara was the hero of India’s 2018-19 series in which Kohli’s men had created history by winning the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. But in the first Test, the right-handed batsman was dismissed by Pat Cummins in the 2nd innings.
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Speaking to reporters, Cummins explained how the Aussies tackled the Cheteshwar Pujara threat.
“One of the biggest helpers was the wicket, it felt like there was a bit of sideways movement,” Cummins was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
“We could just challenge his defence over and over again and having a bit of bounce in the wicket certainly helped,” Cummins added.
The pacer also praised Nathan Lyon for dismissing Pujara for 43 despite the batsman batting well on a tough surface.
“I thought Lyno (Nathan Lyon) bowled beautifully to him in the first innings. But, for sure, we are really clear what we want to do to him. We saw we probably brought an extra man to the leg side as well to try and really attack his stumps,” he said.
“I thought he batted really well in the first innings. We bowled well enough for the scoreboard to not go anywhere. If he hasn’t gone on to that big score, you are right in the game,”he signed off.
Cummins termed the Adelaide result as the “most satisfying win as a group” and said it all started at the Manchester Test against England, which Australia won by 185 runs, during the drawn Ashes tour last year. “I think we have a really special group here. I think the Ashes series a couple of years ago was the beginning and we have kept basically the same squad together,” Cummins said.
(With PTI inputs)