Australia captain Pat Cummins was spotted attending British Rock band Coldplay’s concert on Saturday, November 10 as Australia lost the three-match ODI series vs Pakistan. Cummins wife Becky had shared a photo from the concert on her Instagram story and wrote ‘Excitement levels are high.’ Notably, Cummins was rested from the third ODI along with several other senior players to prepare for the all-important five-match Test series against India beginning from November 22.
In his absence, Josh Inglis was entrusted with the captaincy duties of the team as Australia made five changes to their playing XI as they rested Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.
However, the decision didn’t go down well as they ended up losing the third ODI by eight wickets handing Pakistan their first ODI series win in Australia since 2002. After being put in to bat first, Australia were bundled out for just 140 with Sean Abbott being the top scorer with his knock of 30 (41). Shaheen Afridi (3/32) and Naseem Shah (3/54) were the pick of the bowlers for Pakistan while Haris Rauf (2/24) also chipped in with two wickets.
In reply, Pakistan chased down the target in 26.5 overs with Saim Ayub (42 off 52) and Abdullah Shafique (37 off 53) once again getting their team off to a great start. Following their dismissals, Babar Azam (28* off 30) and Mohammad Rizwan (30* off 27) took their team home helping them win by eight wickets.
Following Australia’s series loss, former captain Michael Clarke has come down heavily on the team management questioning the resting of the players with the series on the line.
We obviously don’t care about losing that series: Michael Clarke
“I’m just a bit confused, so 11 days between now and the first Test, why can’t the Aussie boys who are part of this Test series play in the one-dayer. They are going to go to training and get flogged. If Australia had won the first two games, then you can understand why they rest their big fish, but it was series on the line,” said Clarke on Big Sports Breakfast radio show.
“You can’t expect the fans to want and come and watch one-day cricket. We are bagging one-day cricket, no one is turning up, hasn’t got the interest, I wonder why. I feel like we obviously don’t care about losing that series. If you’re not going to care, we’re not going to care. I think we have it wrong. I understand resting for Test cricket, I love that, but it’s a one-day game. They are going to bowl more than that at training,” he added.
Meanwhile, after the ODI series, Pakistan and Australia will lock horns in a three-match T20I series beginning from November 14 at The Gabba, Brisbane.
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