Pat Cummins is adamant he will be a certainty to make his return from a thigh injury next Saturday against South Africa, leaving Michael Neser and Scott Boland in a head-to-head battle for the third seamer’s spot.
“I had a bowl today, I’m feeling great so I’ll be right for the Gabba,” Cummins said in a boundary interview with Channel Seven late on day three, adding he was probably only a couple of days away from being right for the second Test against the West Indies in Adelaide.
Boland all but guaranteed he will get the third seamer’s role alongside Cummins and Mitchell Starc with his first over of the second innings when he took 3-0 in yet another wicket-taking burst in his remarkable four-Test career.
Unlike Josh Hazlewood, who is is likely to be out for a couple of weeks with his side strain, Cummins has stayed with the Australian team for the second Test against the West Indies in Adelaide and went through his paces with 20 minutes of bowling on the field before the start of day three.
It was the first time he’s rolled the arm over since straining his thigh muscle in the first innings of the opening Test in Perth last week.
Cummins’ return means Neser or Boland will miss the cut at the Gabba against the Proteas.
Neser’s cause is helped by the fact the series opener against South Africa will be on the Queensland veteran’s home ground.
(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
He outshone Boland in the first innings in Adelaide, taking 2-34 from his 12 overs, while the Victorian seamer went wicketless for the first time in his four-Test career, although he was miserly as usual, conceding just 29 runs from 16 overs.
After terrorising England to take 18 scalps in three matches last summer, Boland’s remarkable Test average “blew out” to 11.16 following his luckless stint against the Windies in the first innings although he got it back into single figures after his three-wicket maiden over on Saturday night.
Hazlewood has returned home to Sydney as part of his rehabilitation but is all but certain to be unavailable for the series opener against South Africa.
Young West Australian speedster Lance Morris is likely to remain with the squad for the Brisbane assignment to gain further experience of being in and around the Australian camp.
To use or not use a nightwatchman is an eternal debate in cricket circles.
West Indies tailender Anderson Phillip showcased the best and the worst of the ploy in his team’s first innings at Adelaide.
He achieved his first goal by surviving the last few overs before stumps on Friday night and dug in to score 43 off 78, batting at No.6, which according to ABC stats guru Ric Finlay, is the highest tally by a Windies nightwatchman since another player with a two first-names, Winston Benjamin, against the Aussies in 1995.
However, the down side of a nightwatchman is that tailenders aren’t as adept at running between the wickets as batters and Phillip skewered Tagenarine Chanderpaul with their mix-up early on day three.
One of cricket’s countless unwritten rules is the lesser batter should sacrifice themselves in a mix-up like that one but Phillip sent Chanderpaul back and he was caught millimetres short by Mitchell Starc’s athletic pick-up and throw in his follow-through.
Using the nightwatchman also means the “protected” batters slide a further spot down to the tail and Roston Chase, who has five Test hundreds, ended up coming in at No.9 and was left with little to work with after Phillip and Alzarri Joseph departed in quick succession.
Although he was at least able to fashion a defiant 43-run last-wicket partnership with Marquino Mindley before he went for 34.
After only getting through two overs fresh off the plane from the Caribbean before tearing his hamstring, Mindley at least savoured a few moments to remember from his Test debut with a four and a six in his unbeaten 11 batting at No.11.
The common perception is that teams hardly ever enforce the follow-on these days, particularly Australia, after Steve Waugh’s side got burnt by VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid leading India to their famous win at Eden Gardens in 2001.
That against-the-odds result was the third and still final time a team has won a match after being forced to follow on.
But the follow-on has been enforced exactly 100 times since that day with 84 of the time the team bowling a second time going on to win and the other 16 ending in a draw, some due to the weather intervening.
Funnily enough, Waugh was not scared off by the Indian mishap. He was the first Test captain worldwide to make a team follow on after that Test, doing so in the Ashes tour later that year, and did so another six times before he retired in 2004.
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The last time Australia took the option was in the Adelaide Test of 2019 against Pakistan when Tim Paine’s team bowled them out for 302 after posting 3(dec)-589 and then polished them off for 239 in the second dig to win by an innings and 48 runs.
Stand-in skipper Steve Smith opted against the tactic on day three of the second Test against the West Indies despite holding a 297-run advantage, giving his bowlers a few hours to rest. The temperature was up around 35 degrees on Saturday so the bowlers still exerted plenty of energy despite rollinthe tourists in less than 70 overs.
Some showers are forecast in Adelaide for days four and five so the Aussies scored quickly to give themselves a decent crack at the top order late on Saturday night.
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