Pat Cummins has warned India that Australia are pumped up and back to their best as they look to carry the momentum from a commanding 10-wicket win on Sunday into the next Test in Brisbane.
After being thumped by 295 runs in Perth, the hosts responded emphatically in Adelaide to wipe out Rohit Sharma’s men inside three days and leave the five-match series evenly poised at 1-1.
They did so without injured frontline bowler Josh Hazlewood, who appears on track to play the third Test at the Gabba starting on Saturday.
“Great week, great to level the series. You know, I think we were back to our best,” said captain Cummins, who took 5-57 and seven wickets for the match. “That’s the kind of team that I remember, and how we want to play our cricket. So really satisfying.”
The defeat in Perth and negative media coverage made their eighth consecutive pink-ball win in Adelaide taste even better, he added.
“I think being one down, no doubt there’s a little bit more on it, trying to level up the series,” he said. “And, you know, you get a bit more pumped up for wickets. It’s a big series, every Test match is big, every wicket is pretty big. So it’s pretty pumped out there.”
After bowling out India for 180 in the first innings, Australia slammed 337 in reply to pile pressure on the visitors, with Travis Head’s whirlwind 140 a game-changer.
Cummins said it was a luxury having a weapon like him in the middle order.
“It feels like every time he walks out the game’s kind of in the balance, it can go one of two ways,” he said. “And you know, within the space of a session or so, he really took the game out of their hands and just put the pressure right back onto the opposition.
“If he feels like there’s a small opportunity, he’ll up the ante … so amazing and he’s done it time and time again for us in many different formats. He’s super-impressive.”
Meanwhile, Rohit vowed that India will rebound in Brisbane and refused to believe their heavy defeat in Adelaide will leave a mental “scar”.
Rohit attributed the demoralising loss to sub-standard batting, but brushed off the scale of the defeat.
“Firstly, it’s not a [mental] scar, it’s just we’ve lost a Test match,” he said. “We didn’t play well enough. So it’s important in this short time that we have before the next Test match just to figure out certain things.
“You know, if you want to bat how we want to bat, and if you want to bowl, what lines and what lengths and what kind of fields placement we need to have.
“Those are the things more than anything else. Like I said, it’s still 1-1 and plenty of things left in this series and definitely a way for us to get back into it.
“When you come to Australia I feel the best chance of winning a Test match is by putting runs on the board. And of course, when we won the toss, we elected to bat,” added Rohit.
“We knew that there would be challenges. But in the past, where the conditions have been a little challenging, we’ve batted really well to put runs on the board and then try and put pressure on the opposition.
“That is the disappointing part, that we didn’t bat well enough, you know, probably were 30-40 runs short with the bat in the first innings.”
India also failed to make best use of the new pink ball when Australia had to negotiate almost two hours at dusk on day one.
While Jasprit Bumrah was ever-dangerous, the rest of the attack lacked bite.
“There were opportunities when Australia were batting and we failed to take those chances,” said Rohit. “And obviously, when you miss those chances, it is never easy, the opposition will always make you pay for it, and that’s what happened.”
© Agence France-Presse
Photo: Paul Kane/Getty Images
