Sydney, 15 September (H.S.): Australia Test captain Pat Cummins has rejected the suggestion that inadequate preparation was responsible for his team’s shock Test defeat against Bangladesh in August. Australia suffered a nine-wicket loss in the opening match of the two-Test series, but the team made a strong comeback in the second Test to register a comprehensive innings victory.

Cummins said that even if the series had been a high-profile Ashes contest against England rather than a series against Bangladesh, there would have been no change in the Australian team’s preparation.

Speaking on the ‘Keepin’ It Cricket’ podcast, he said, “Whether it was an Ashes Test or the Bangladesh series, I think we would have prepared in exactly the same way. Certainly, you assess things after the series, but I genuinely felt we were in a good position. Everyone was fit and fully prepared.”

Asked what went wrong in the first Test, Cummins gave a straightforward response. He said, “I think we just didn’t play good cricket.”

He added, “I don’t think it was a lack of preparation. I think we just didn’t play our best, and Bangladesh played some fantastic cricket. They really didn’t give us much of an opportunity to get back into the game.”

Australia’s next Test campaign will begin with a three-match series against South Africa. However, Cummins will not feature in the preceding ODI series against Zimbabwe.

The tour of South Africa will also mark Australia’s return to Test cricket there following the 2018 ‘Sandpaper-gate’ controversy. However, Cummins does not expect the old controversy to overshadow the upcoming Test series.

“There might be a bit of hostility,” he said. However, he immediately added, “Everyone has moved on. The good thing is there are three Test matches, you focus on the cricket and pretty quickly everyone starts thinking only about cricket.”

Cummins said, “I’m sure there’ll be a few people in the crowd making plenty of noise, and some articles or media might bring up the old story again. But our team has moved on from that incident.”

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar