New Delhi: Having coped a lot of criticism after Australia’s 295-run defeat to India in the first Test at Perth, Pat Cummins improved his performance by a few notches that rubbed off on his team-mates in their 10 wicket win at Adelaide, feels Adam Gilchrist.
Australia slumped to their biggest loss in terms of runs at home to India in the opening match but then bounced back quickly to square the five match Border-Gavaskar series in the second game, a day-night Test at Adelaide.
Cummins led from the front at Perth, taking five wickets in the second innings as Australia dominated India and won inside three days.
Former wicketkeeper-batter Gilchrist said he felt Cummin underwent a “grease and oil change” after the drubbing at Perth.
“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,” he told Fox Cricket.
The former left handed batter also praised Australia’s pace trio of Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland, who shared all the 20 Indian wickets between them in the pink ball Test at Adelaide.
They were so much dominant that star off spinner Nathan Lyon bowled only one over and all-rounder Mitchell Marsh bowled only four over.
“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, Boland, Cummins hunted as a pack and bowled as a unit and that was really fun to watch,” Gilchrist added.
‘Stung by criticism’
Gilchrist also said the manner Cummins celebrated each Indian wicket showed how much they were “stung” by the criticism after the loss at Perth.
“You could see just through his (Cummins) celebrations that… every wicket that he took he was more aggressive in his celebration,” he said.
“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,” Gilchrist pointed out.
Australia slumped to their biggest loss in terms of runs at home to India in the opening match but then bounced back to square the five match Border-Gavaskar series in the second game, a day-night Test at Adelaide. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
