The Cairns Post

Past fear factor propels pace men to up ante

- BEN HORNE CRICKET

AUSTRALIA’S prized pace attack has been shown footage of England’s biggest names looking scared and helpless to serve as motivation for executing a Mitchell Johnson-style assault at the Gabba.

New hit-man Pat Cummins is gearing up for his much anticipate­d debut Test on home soil, and his voice almost quivpins ered yesterday when revealing the impact vivid replays of Johnson’s carnage four years ago had on the bowling group.

The team watched video of England stars Stuart Broad and James Anderson looking like they “didn’t want to be there” and walked out convinced that they can ensure history repeats.

Australia is adamant there are also “cracks underneath the surface” for batting linchmind, Joe Root and Alastair Cook and have warned that David Warner’s pre-series taunts of aggression and hate were not a publicity stunt but very much the real deal.

With the terror created by Johnson playing over in his Cummins will come off his long run on Thursday inspired that he can be crowned the new dictator of fear.

“The ones that stick out to me are the Gabba and seeing a couple of their bowlers, Stuey Broad and Anderson … from our point of view they looked like they didn’t want to be out there,” said Cummins yesterday.

“They didn’t want to bat. They’d try and swerve away from the balls before he’d kind of even released them. Hopefully we can create that kind of anxiety in them.

“Seeing his highlights up here at the Gabba, it was pretty awesome … showing the impact that transcende­d the cricket field.

“It put fear in them. When they were sitting around waiting to bat, in between games, they were thinking about him.

“(We want to) replicate that somehow with our squad.”

(WE WANT TO) REPLICATE THAT SOMEHOW.

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