’We don’t need Test warm-up’
Short, sharp preparation for Aussies
PAT Cummins and a bevy of Australia’s Test stars will hit the series against the West Indies without a red-ball game as part of their preparation – and the captain is OK with that.
The second Test in Sri Lanka in July was the last redball game Cummins played before he and teammates including David Warner, Steve Smith and frontline quicks Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood dived into a long haul of limited-overs games.
That stopped any from playing Sheffield Shield, where spinner Nathan Lyon, batters Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head and keeper Alex Carey were able to get in some long-form preparation.
The third ODI against England next Tuesday gives Cummins and company just eight days before the opening Test match against the Windies in Perth.
But the skipper was adamant a “manufactured” preparation for the Tests, which included playing international cricket, albeit against a white ball, was more than OK.
“I feel better about it than I did a few years ago,” Cummins said ahead of the opening ODI in Adelaide on Thursday.
“I felt like I needed to play a bit of cricket.
“But the last couple of years, we have manufactured our own lead-up. We’ve done centre-wickets, done some intra-squad competitive battles, and to be honest, that’s probably my preference than playing a full-on four-day game.
“I feel really comfortable and ODI cricket is a great way to get physically right, and we’ll have a couple of bowls at the WACA before the first Test.
“We’ve got, hopefully, 15 Test matches in the next six or seven months; we’ll be ready for the first one and hopefully still going.”
Cummins said the style of preparation was the new way in world cricket, where he and so many others participated in all three forms of the game. But while the Test and ODI skipper didn’t think that was sustainable all year, he said it was up to teams to manage their players to be peaking when it mattered.
“It’s up to us to manage players,” he said. “The schedule is what it is.”