" I wouldn't change too much"- Pat Cummins stands firm on his tactics despite a draw in Karachi

Australian captain Pat Cummins rued the missed opportunities in the field during Pakistan's second innings after the home side pulled off a stunning heist to eke out an unlikely draw in Karachi.

For the fifth time in the last 3 years, the Australian attack failed to close out the game on a fifth day pitch and once again it was the errors on the field and some tactical calls from the skipper that proved to be their undoing.

Steve Smith dropped Abdullah Shafique on the fourth afternoon, which would have reduced the hosts to 3-38. Shafique went to add 200+ runs with skipper Babar Azam before falling 4 runs short of a deserved century.

Then, Usman Khawaja dropped Mohammad Rizwan late on day 5. Had Khawaja not shelled it, Australia would have had 18 deliveries to dismiss the last two batsmen.

However, Cummins feels that the fact that his attack is able to produce more than 10 chances every game is a 'positive' but conceded that it's a missed opportunity for Australia.

Speaking to the media after a gruelling draw in Karachi, Cummins said, "Think the positive thing is each time we've created more than 10 chances. [It's] probably the disappointing thing about this game as well. If we took a couple of those catches it might be a different scenario."

"I walked off the field at the end of the day's play without feeling there was something I hadn't tried, or there wasn't a plan we hadn't given a really good chance at. In foreign conditions we are showing that we are able to adapt and play well over here. But of course, getting so close, [being] so far ahead of the game, and not coming away with the result can feel like it's a missed opportunity."

Apart from the aforementioned missed chances, there were a few half-chances in the afternoon session courtesy of debutant leg-spinner, Mitchell Swepson.

The young leggie eventually finished with figures of 0-156 but that's not a fair reflection of how he bowled, especially during the 2nd session.

Cummins too was hugely delighted with the way Swepson bowled in his debut game, as he was with his premier spinner, Nathan Lyon's efforts.

Lyon, who toiled away all day, threatened to win the game for his side when he knocked over Azam, Sajid Khan and Nauman Ali in quick succession in the last session.

"I thought Swepo bowled fantastically today," Cummins said. "I don't know how he's ended up with those figures. Especially that middle session, he had an umpire's call, a couple of half chances dropped off his bowling, lots of plays and misses. The way he was able to be a real wicket-taking option on a really good wicket without really footmarks to the right-handers, I was just really impressed with how he went about it," said Cummins.

"Nathan, I thought he bowled well, particularly today. Felt like he was going to get a wicket every over. When I took him off to bowl Starcy or myself, it was a hard decision to make because I felt like he was so close to a wicket all day." he added.

Cummins made a few tactical calls in this game. He delayed the declaration in the first innings to ensure that the pitch had enough by the time Pakistan came to bat. Then, he decided against enforcing the follow-on despite having 400+ runs in the bank.

However, the skipper said he won't change anything if he had the option while hailing the Babar-led Pakistani unit for their immense grit and skills.

Overall I wouldn't change too much to be honest. Batting into day three gave us that chance to really have a crack at them - probably went better than we could have expected - but over here the wickets are pretty good. We tried to bat two-and-a-half days on the best time of the wicket, hoping that it would break up on day four and five and it held together pretty well," explained Cummins.

"Babar, Rizwan, Shafique, thought they all batted fantastically the last two days. We knew the wicket wasn't playing too many tricks but they batted superbly and made it really hard to get that breakthrough and when we did the next guy stuck at it as well," he said.

Cummins signed off by claiming that heading into the final Test the series is still 0-0. That's true! But, Australia would rue the fact that they lost out on 8 WTC points despite dominating the entire game.

"The good thing is it's nil-all, we didn't lose anything. Coming over here in these conditions, at the start of the series if you'd said it was going to be nil-all after two games you'd probably take that." 

The final Test will take place at the Gaddafi Stadium from March 21.