IND vs AUS: Pat Cummins comes hard on his batters after loss in Delhi Test

Australia skipper Pat Cummins expressed his disappointment after the Aussie batters failed to tackle the spinners in the second Test in Delhi. Talking about his batters’ failed strategy of countering Indian spinners with sweep shots, Cummins said after the match, “I thought they (India) bowled really well. It's not easy out there, but perhaps some guys went away from their methods,” as quoted by NDTV.

He also added that, “Each batter has their own way to go about it. I don't think there's any one size fits all rule. Unfortunately, quite a few of us got out with kind of cross batted shots which might not be our preferred method.”

The Aussie skipper also discussed the tempo and method of batters. He said that the high tempo should be balanced by the correct method.

“Two big things we talk about is the tempo of the game and the method. Maybe at times, we were a little bit too high on tempo,” said the 29-year-old, who prefers that approach.

"I would rather be high tempo than low tempo though. To be honest, those wickets were being difficult but maybe the method went a little bit away from what we planned to do at times."

He also went on to admit that batting first was a good opportunity to score 300 plus which his team 'potentially' missed.

"Looking back on it, 300 would have been fantastic. 260 was ‘ok' but if we really want to drive home the advantage we were a few short."

He also drew similarities between his team’s miserable batting performances in Nagpur Test and Delhi Test. In the second innings, the visitors’ innings got bundled in a session.

“It's disappointing, this game was a similar story to Nagpur second innings. Felt like we were in a really good position for most of it, probably a few runs short in the end. In Nagpur maybe we underplayed. We probably overplayed it here at times in the second innings. You have got to find a way to try and put pressure back on the bowlers. They are really, really good bowlers, especially in these conditions.”

Cummins also acknowledged the effort of the Indian lower order and mentioned that they batted really well and built crucial partnerships.

“Again they batted very well. They are guys who have scored Test hundreds and batted really well. I thought our plans were pretty sound most of the time but unfortunately, they built partnerships.

A couple of those times the first two days, it felt like if you got yourself in (set), it was going to get a little easier The ball was getting softer and older as well. It's something we will look at. It's disappointing. Those small margins both games end up making a pretty big difference,” he concluded.

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