“Forgot About Bowling”: Australia Great Pinpoints Pat Cummins’ Mistakes In Delhi Test

Legendary Allan Border feels Pat Cummins had a lot to worry about as the series against India was his “first real test as captain” and in the process found himself bowled short in the second Test in Delhi. Australia left the four-match series for the Border Gavaskar Trophy after losing the opening two Tests in Nagpur and Delhi. Cummins, who had suffered just one defeat as captain before coming to India, was the only paceman in the Australian playing XI in the six-wicket loss in Delhi. He bowled just 13 overs in the first innings and did not bowl at all in India’s second innings.

“For me, the fast bowler, it’s always fraught with danger,” Border told SEN Radio.

“I thought Pat bowled himself very little in that Test match.

“There were occasions when things started going astray, especially in the Indian first innings when we had them on the ropes and they built a good partnership, had a few bursts of it and bowled some short deliveries for two or three overs. …. Australia had bowled India out for 139 for 7 before Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin shared a 114-run stand to take India just one run short of the visitors’ first innings total.

“I think there are other guys on the field who can go up to the captain and say, ‘mate, why don’t you bowl’?” Seema said.

“But I thought this was Pat’s first real test as a captain, everything else has been easy, you go to the subcontinent and all of a sudden you’re tested in all kinds of areas.

“He’s worried about so many different things, I think he’s forgotten how to bowl himself. That’s what can happen in those situations when your leading fast bowler is your captain.” However, Border also had sympathy for Cummins.

“There’s a lot going on, even if you’re the captain in those conditions and you’re a batsman. People don’t really appreciate how tough it is, it’s a really different place to play the game in the sub-continent. ” ,” he explained.

“You gotta have your wits about you, that’s for sure… When it’s not going right and it’s going south, it goes south pretty quickly.” Former wicket-keeper Ian Healy felt that Cummins lost the “power of mind” to set the field properly in the second innings. “Then the mental stress involved in getting your field right didn’t seem to be there in the previous innings.

“He still had men at the boundary instead of extra catchers around the bat … It takes a lot of mind power to think about that and (the bowling change).” Cummins returned home from the tour of India after the second Test due to a “serious family illness”. He is expected to return to India for the remaining two matches of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Indore and Ahmedabad.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and was auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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