Pat Cummins to take break, unfinished business in Nathan Lyon’s mind

Having endured a busy 18 months on the road, Australia’s Test captain Pat Cummins has decided to take an eight-week break to make himself fully fit for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The 31-year-old, who recently featured in Major League Cricket, will not travel to England for the white-ball series next month. Instead will use the break to focus on his workload.

Since returning to the fold in the World Test Championship final, Cummins has had a busy calendar which included two white-ball World Cups. He was also part of the entire Indian Premier League and with a busy Australian summer ahead, Cummins has opted for rest.

“I’m very sore today after a week of gym,” Cummins told Fox Cricket “Hamstrings, even ankles, kind of build up over months of bowling, but you can’t really nail it while you’re in the midst of the season,” he added.

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The upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which involves five Tests for the first time since its naming, is already being labelled as Australia’s biggest ever challenge against India. Since winning the four match Test series against India during the 2014/15 season, Australia haven’t been able to reclaim the BGT. In four series that followed – including two at home – India won all with a 2-1 margin.

Having lost two series in succession, the wounded Australia are expected to pose a strong challenge for India, who are scheduled to kick-off the series in Perth on November 22. Having not been part of an Australian side that won the BGT before, Cummins has a chance to change the trend as a captain. “It’s the trophy I haven’t won before … this is the one trophy a lot of our group haven’t ticked off,” Cummins said.

India have emerged victorious in the last two Border-Gavaskar series Down Under (File). India have emerged victorious in the last two Border-Gavaskar series Down Under (File).

“We’ve achieved some amazing things over the last few years as a Test group. You kind of back yourself to win every series at home. I think you need to try and be up there in the upper echelon of teams. That’s what lies ahead of us this summer,” Cummins added.

During the 2020/21 series Down Under, Cummins was part of the Australian pace attack which included Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood who bowled India for 36 all out. However, India overcame the deficit and won two of the next three Tests.

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Unfinished business: Lyon

It is not just Cummins, Australia’s off-spinner Nathan Lyon is baying for revenge. Lyon, who has been busy playing County cricket for Lancashire, said he is extremely hungry to turn things around this year, having been part of all the four series they lost.

“It’s been ten years of unfinished business, it’s been a long time, and I know we’re extremely hungry to turn things around especially here at home,” Lyon was quoted as saying by ESPN Cricinfo. “Don’t get me wrong, India is an absolute superstar side and extremely challenging but I’m extremely hungry to turn things around and make sure we get that trophy back.

With a new set of players coming in, Lyon believes the current Australian team will be able to turn the tables. “Feel like we are a different team to a couple of years ago, we are on a journey of becoming a great Australian cricket team. We’re definitely not there but we are along that journey and have been playing some decent cricket.”

As part of his homework, Lyon has been in touch with England left-arm spinner Tom Hartley — who recently toured India – to have a better understanding of current Indian batsmen, especially Yashasvi Jaiswal.

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“I haven’t come across him [Jaiswal] yet, but that will be a massive challenge for all us bowlers,” he said. “The way he played against England, I watched that quite closely and thought that was quite amazing. I had some really good chats with Tom Hartley about different ways he went about it to different guys which I found quite interesting,” Lyon added.

India would also play a two-day warm-up game under lights between the first Test in Perth and the second in Adelaide, which would be a day-and-night contest, at the Manuka Oval.

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