PAT: IT’S SIMPLY THE BEST
GUTS, love and unprecedented levels of care matched with skills taken to “another level” at the MCG moved Australian captain Pat Cummins to declare this juggernaut of a team the best he’s played in.
His outfit demolished South Africa in Melbourne for a second straight match and secured a series win which overturned three straight home losses to the Proteas.
Changes loom as Australia looks to a series clean-sweep in Sydney, with replacements for injured stars Cameron Green and Mitchell Starc to be decided as soon as Friday morning.
The efforts of those two – Green making 50 while batting with a broken finger, Starc bowling with a finger injury of his own so gruesome it continually drew blood will keep him sidelined “for some time” – only added to the adulation Cummins was prepared to heap on his players.
Cummins said it took “no convincing” to get Starc to bowl 18 second-innings overs in pain to secure the massive win, the same manner of overand-above commitment which drew Josh Hazlewood to tell selectors not to pick him before the game even started.
The end result, a win by an innings and 185 runs, bowling South Africa out twice inside four days, was not just a fitting tribute to the legend of Shane Warne at his beloved ground – “hopefully he’s watching somewhere proud,” Cummins said – but the mark of a champion team wanting to dominate the world.
“All the incredible achievements this week, Starcy with a finger that‘s going to put him out for a few weeks, to have the bravery to go out there and do that. Cam Green the same, gutsing it out for us,” Cummins said.
“We saw Steve Smith and Davey (Warner) batting on day two in 38 degrees, gutsy, gutsy innings.
“Even Joshy Hazelwood before the game, you know, putting his hand up and removing himself from selection I think just speaks volumes of the team at the moment.
“There’s so much care, everyone would do anything for each other
“I mean, winning by an innings and 200 runs doesn’t tell the full story. Alex Carey’s innings with Greeny to get us that lead, there’s so many different individual stories
“It is probably the best … Test team I’ve played in just in terms of how well settled everyone is.
“We know it’s not going to stay like this forever. But I think we can just all kind of sit back and appreciate the place that we are in at the moment because it’s really special and we’re having a hell of a lot of fun as well.”
Warner was named man of the match for his back-to-thewall 200.
Nathan Lyon closed out the game with three final-day wickets, after his own shoulder scare, with hometown hero Scott Boland seizing two himself, knowing he could find himself out of the team in Sydney
with Hazlewood to return and a second spinner a potential inclusion.
Starc, knowing he’s in a race to get back for the series in India,
echoed Cummins’ sentimen ts about the culture of care which embodies the Australian team under the captain and coach, Andrew McDonald, and why he was happy to bowl on.
“It’s just a really enjoyable place to be and I think it’s been that way for a particular last 18, 24 months,” Starc said, his finger bandaged, awaiting more scans before his recovery period is locked in.
“We’re playing good cricket, it’s a settled team. There’s a lot of trust there in whether it be preparation, knowing what you need to be ready for a Test or know that you’re going to be able to deliver through the week.
“It’s just a fun place to be.” Cummins admits the Sydney team might be picked with one eye on the pitch and the other on February’s tour of India.
“It’s a pretty good lead-in in terms of, it’s probably going to be the wicket in Australia that closest resembles India.
“It might give us a chance to have a look at one or two players that will be on the Indian tour ahead of that.
“But the first priority is of course to win the Test match.”