Adelaide, Dec 10, 2024
Former Australia wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist lauded captain Pat Cummins’ aggression in the second Test against India at Adelaide Oval which the hosts won by 10-wicket to level the series 1-1.
In the pink-ball Test, the Australian pace trioka of Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland claimed all 20 wickets in India’s innings. Cummins and Starc showed dominance on the seam-friendly surface and shared 15 wickets between them.
Cummins, who got just three scalps in Perth’s 295-run loss, bagged seven wickets in Adelaide and celebrated in style with controlled aggression.
“You could see just through his celebrations that… every wicket that he took he was more aggressive in his celebration,” Gilchrist said on Fox Cricket’s The Follow-on podcast. “Not in that lose control extent, but you could just see that clearly they’d been stung by a bit of criticism around after their performance (in Perth) and they internally would have been so disappointed with the way they played in Perth.”
“So it (Adelaide celebrations) showed you what it meant to them and they knew that they were back at the level they want to play their cricket. Cummins was outstanding, he looked like if there needed a bit of a grease and oil change after Perth and a tune up, he was purring by the end of it, so that was terrific to watch.
“They were just a unit, the three bowlers, Nathan Lyon only had one over (in the match) and Mitch Marsh four, but other than that, the big three — Starc, Bold, Cummins — hunted as a pack and bowled as a unit and that was really fun to watch,” he added.
Meanwhile, Gilchrist admired Marnus Labuschagne’s positive approach in defence, noting that while his dismissal was “reasonably soft,” he believes Labuschagne has set a solid platform for scoring more runs as the series progresses.
“Simple things when you defend; if you’re immediately looking to size up whether there is a single or not, I might be wrong, but in Perth it seemed he was so focused on being rock solid in defence that you lose the intent in that action,” Gilchrist said.
“You might then miss and opportunity to pinch a quick single and get yourself off strike and not get bogged down. Everything he did (in Adelaide) was really positive and looked like he had the right intent.
“He would have been extremely disappointed to give up his wicket the way he did in the end, in what turned out to be a reasonably soft manner.
“The fact that he spent some time at the crease, started accumulating runs and had that really important partnership with McSweeney, I think, has set Marnus back on the right track. Now, it is his job to replicate that over and over,” he added.
The third Test between Australia and India will be played in Brisbane from December 14.(Agency)
