Pat Cummins bullish on Australia beating India in Border-Gavaskar Trophy

Hyderabad: Australian captain Pat Cummins said winning the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India is something that he would want to tick off as most Australians expect the team to do well in home conditions.

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy, comprising five Test matches, commences at the Optus Stadium in Perth on November 22. The five Test matches are a part of the World Test Championship (WTC) cycle and India and Australia occupy the top two spots on the WTC points table.

Cummins, who had never been a part of a victorious Australian team against India, said he believes that the team is in good shape to emerge victorious against India. “It’s kind of the one big thing that I want to tick off. Particularly winning at home. Most Australians, me included, expect us to do well whenever we play at home,” the Australian captain said on the sidelines of his book launch on Tuesday.

The premier fast bowler, who has played 62 Test matches, has led Australia to a World Test Championship title, ODI World Cup title – both beating India – and has also won the Ashes but the Border-Gavaskar Trophy has eluded him.

For the record, Australia have not beaten India in their last 16 Test series and the last time Australia won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy was in 2014-15. India have won four consecutive series including wins in Australia in 2018-19 and 2020-21 and Cummins feels the current Australian team can break that streak. “We’ve lost the last two series against them, so this is a big one. We feel like our team’s in a really good place, so we have got no reason why we shouldn’t perform really well. I just always expect us to do well against whoever we play. But India, particularly, is a big year, big season,” the 31-year-old captain added.

India are currently on a downslide after losing their first Test series in India in more than a decade after losing the two Test matches against New Zealand, they are also struggling with the moving ball and to add to India’s woes, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are on a lean patch, struggling to put big scores on the board, but Cummins feels it is the right time to play against such a team. “I think any time a team’s under pressure, it’s not a bad thing if you’re playing against them. But, they have been out here before and performed well. Our job is to try and keep them quiet, see how we go,” he concluded.