Pat Cummins analyses his T20 bowling, compares it with Test match cricket

Pat Cummins looked ruthless with the ball in the recently concluded IPL 2024. The star pacer was never known for his bowling in the shortest format of the game but the marquee tournament in India changed things as he is now considered to be a force to reckon with. Ahead of playing against Oman on June 5, Cummins analysed the changes he brought to his T20 bowling and explained that he keeps himself away from the ‘funky stuff’ that usually happens in the shortest format.

The Australia ODI and T20I skipper mentioned that as a pace bowler, he sticks to the correct line and length and doesn’t change with each format. He noted that balance is important in T20 cricket but that at the end of the day makes the difference. The 31-year-old added that he doesn’t bowl cutters or round the wicket and sticks to his strength to get the right result.

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“So if I try and start bowling, I do not know, leg cutters and round-the-wicket funky stuff, that is not me at my best. I got picked (as a fast bowler) because bowling hard length is my strength. So it is always a balance in T20 cricket, in particular of mixing up your own strengths as a player but then not being too predictable and always throwing something different at the batters,” said Cummins in ESPN’s Cricket Monthly.

“In some games, you walk off and you feel like you got that balance right, in other games you kind of rue one or two balls and feel like you should have tried a bit more or tried a little bit less. So it is always a constant battle,” he added. 

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Even though Cummins feels that bowling is relatively hard in T20 cricket it is nothing close to Test cricket. He believes that bowling 20 overs in a day and going back to do it once again on the following day is much harder than maintaining balance in T20 cricket.

“So it still feels like you can have a big impact. But I do not think anything's tougher than bowling 20 overs in a day's play, going to bed, waking up and having to do it again like in Test match cricket,” Cummins said.