Cummins confident on renaissance of Aussie bowling attack in Lahore Test

Although they managed to turn the tides of the game into their team’s favour during Pakistan’s second innings in the Karachi Test, the Australian bowlers fell short by just three wickets to script one of the finest Test triumphs in their rich history. They didn’t end up being victorious as the resilient Pakistani batting unit led by none other than Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan exhibited utmost grit and determination to deny them a famous win.

Ahead of the deciding face-off at Lahore, the leader of the Aussie attack Pat Cummins has given a very strong statement that his bowlers are ready to put everything in order to snatch the victory from the home side in the iconic ground. Although they toiled really hard on the field, Cummins has assured that all his bowlers are physically fine and raring to be unleashed. 

“Had a walk-around and everyone is fine, there’s no big injury concerns. We knew it was a 15-day tour, basically back-to-back, think that’s why we protected ourselves on the last day of the last Test,” Cummins said. “We know what we’ve signed up for, so we will put everything into the next week. We’ve got four days, so one extra than what we had before this Test to recover,” the Australian captain further added. 

The wickets supplied on this tour have been grossly unresponsive, demanding the bowlers to behave like bowling machines. To note, the debutant Mitchell Swepson bowled a huge 53.4 overs while Nathan Lyon sent down 55 overs during Pakistan’s chase in the Karachi Test. 

Talking about the quicks, captain Cummins bowled the most number of overs (39) combining both the innings whereas Starc and Cameron Green bowled 34 and 23 overs respectively across the Test match. But the Aussie skipper seems to be relaxed on managing the workload of the bowlers particularly the spinners as Australia already have the fresh legs of Josh Hazlewood and Scott Boland in the reserves and therefore, they can include any one of them in case somebody is rested. 

“We’ve got a full contingent if we need to call on anyone. The quick bowlers, Starcy and I and Greeny, all bowled between 20 and 35 overs or something like that, so not a huge workload. It’s probably the spinners, make sure they are looked after,” Cummins said.  

The first two Test matches ended in a draw and as a result, the upcoming third encounter between these two teams starting from 21st March at the iconic Gaddafi stadium holds significant importance.