Pat Cummins said that Australia could be at an advantage against India in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India’s chance of advancing to the final of the 2023-25 World Test Championship took a hit after losing 2-0 to Tom Latham’s New Zealand. Although Rohit Sharma’s men are placed atop the table, a defeat or two could see them slip out of the top two.
Before the five-match Test series in Australia, India have a Test match remaining at home against the Black Caps at the iconic Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The 31-year-old Cummins said that Australia will try and “keep them quiet”.
“I hope so. I think any time a team’s under pressure, it’s not a bad thing if you’re playing against them. But they’ve been out here before and performed well. Our job is to try and keep them quiet, see how we go,” Cummins told AAP at the launch of his book ‘Tested’ in Sydney.
“It’s kind of the one big thing that I want to tick off. Particularly winning at home. Most Australians, me included, expect us to do well whenever we play at home.”
‘Our team is in a really good place’
Back in 2018-19, Australia lost to India in a Test series at home for the first time when the likes of Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were provisionally suspended. Then in 2020-21, the Aussies started with a huge win in Adelaide before India made a stupendous campaign to claim the series 2-1.
However, Cummins sounded confident that Australia would be able to turn their fortunes this time around against the Indian team.
“We’ve lost the (last) two series against them (in Australia), so this is a big one. We feel like our team is in a really good place, so we’ve got no reason why we shouldn’t perform really well,” Cummins added.
India’s opening Test against Australia starts on November 22 at the Perth Stadium.