Australian Test skipper Pat Cummins is set to briefly return home from India due to a private family matter. The 29-year-old pace bowler will travel to Sydney for a couple of days before returning to India ahead of the third Test in Indore, which gets underway on Wednesday, March 1.
“Cummins has flown home for personal reasons due to a serious family illness,” Cricket Australia said in a statement on Monday. “He will return to India later this week to re-join preparations for the third Test in Indore. We ask media to respect his privacy.”
India have retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on Sunday (February 20) after defeating Australia by six wickets in Delhi. Cummins has taken three wickets at 39.66 in the series to date. There is lengthy gap before the third Test gets underway in Indore on March 1.
Last week, Australian leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson returned home for the birth of his first child, replaced in the Test squad by Queensland teammate Matthew Kuhnemann. Swepson is set to rejoin the Australian camp in India ahead of the third Test, according to a News Corp report.
_ Captain Pat Cummins travelling back to Australia ahead of the third #INDvAUS Test.
Details _https://t.co/t2bJbxrZ02
— ICC (@ICC) February 20, 2023
Not every batter is comfortable playing a high-percentage risk shot like sweep and reverse sweep and that's where some of his teammates perhaps ‘went out of their methods’, skipper Pat Cummins said after Australia’s demoralising six-wicket defeat against India.
As many as five Australian batters, including vice-captain Steve Smith, were guilty of playing across the line to deliveries that were consistently keeping low. “I thought they (India) bowled really well. It's not easy out there, but perhaps some guys went away from their methods,” Cummins said after the second Test, which his side lost by six wickets.
Cummins feels that the ‘one size fits all’ approach isn’t the right way to go about as far as batting on these tracks are concerned. “Each batter has their own way to go about it. I don't think there's any one size fits all rule. Unfortunately, quite a few of us got out with kind of cross batted shots which might not be our preferred method,” Cummins further explained.
(with PTI inputs)
