'These are the best in the world' - Pat Cummins reveals the toughest batsmen to bowl against

Australia’s decorated speedster Pat Cummins has successfully established himself as one of the best pacers of recent times. Since his debut in the international circuit in 2011, the 28-year-old has featured in 34 Test matches scalping 164 wickets at an economy rate of 2.74 and an average of 21.6.

The Sydney-born also has 111 and 37 wickets to his name from 69 One Day Internationals and 30 T20 Internationals respectively at an economy rate of 5.25 and 6.93.  With such stunning numbers under his belt, it is understood that Cummins have many times rattled the opposition batters with his pace and swing.

Meanwhile, the bowler revealed the batsmen who are the toughest to bowl against. In a question and answer session on his YouTube channel, the pacer listed the battles he enjoyed against several batsmen from around the world. The elite list by Cummins featured names like Joe Root, Virat Kohli, Babar Azam, AB de Villiers, and Kane Williamson.

“These are the best in the world and are the obvious ones as they don’t have any weaknesses. Each team has a couple of batters that are toughest to bowl to, but you want to face those challenges as it is most rewarding,” Cummins said.

“You talk about Joe Root and Ben Stokes from England. Then obviously, Pujara and Virat [Kohli] from India. You have got Kane Williamson and Babar Azam. In South Africa, there was AB de Villiers and Faf [du Plessis] is there. Every team has a couple of guys who are the prized wickets,” he added.

Your role may be that of keeping the runs per over as low as possible: Pat Cummins

Further in the interaction, Cummins also detailed his opinion on the Indian pitches. The cricket surfaces of India especially the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad gained a lot of limelight earlier this year when England toured India for a four-match Test series followed by five T20Is and three ODIs.

Many English former players and cricket analysts raised questions over the quality of the surface as the pitches favored spin more than the pace. Speaking about the same, Cummins reckoned that the pacers should take it as a challenge to perform on the spin-friendly tracks of India.

“My opinion is probably different to that of a lot of batsmen around the world. Sometimes they are spin-friendly but otherwise, they are pretty flat. There is not as much pace and bounce as you might find in Australia or South Africa or as much seam and swing as in England. But it is a challenge and you need to adjust to that. Your role may be that of keeping the runs per over as low as possible,” Pat Cummins asserted.