India's recent home Test series loss against New Zealand has come as a major respite for Pat Cummins' Australia. Rohit Sharma and co will travel Down Under for the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy in November. India have won their last two Test series Down Under, and the visitors would hope to make it a hat-trick. Pat Cummins, however, feels that India's loss against New Zealand could deliver Australia an advantage heading into the marquee series.
When asked whether India's loss against New Zealand would give Australia a boost, Pat Cummins said, "I hope so."
"I think any time a team's under pressure, it's not a bad thing if you're playing against them," Cummins told AAP at the launch of his book 'Tested' in Sydney on Tuesday.
"But they've been out here before and performed well. Our job is to try and keep them quiet, see how we go," he added.
Australia desperate to win Test series against India
Pat Cummins who has played 62 Tests for Australia, has never been a part of Australia squad, who won the Test series against India. Hence, it is no surprise that Cummins is desperate to defeat India.
"It's kind of the one big thing that I want to tick off," Cummins said.
"Particularly winning at home. Most Australians, me included, expect us to do well whenever we play at home. 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," he added.
{{/usCountry}}"Particularly winning at home. Most Australians, me included, expect us to do well whenever we play at home. 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," he added.
{{/usCountry}}Australia had also lost Test series in India last year, however, Cummins and co had a year to remember as they defeated India in the final of the 2023 ODI World Cup.
Australia also defeated India in the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) last year.
In their past 16 Test series, India is the only team that Australia has not beaten in a series either home or away. This includes twice in Australia, during 2018-19, when Steve Smith and David Warner were suspended, and 2020-21.
The 2020-21 series was truly special as India managed to turn a tide. In the first Test, India were bowled out for 36, but under the captaincy of Ajinkya Rahane, India staged a comeback to win the series 2-1.
India have announced their squad for the series against Australia. Pat Cummins and co are yet to name their squad.
India squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), Jasprit Bumrah (vice-captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed.