Australia vs India: Pat Cummins bears load of expectations in Border-Gavaskar Trophy after repeated pain over last decade

Australia have gone winless in four series, both home and away. The last captain to taste a Test series win against India was Michael Clarke, nine years ago.

Five members of the present squad featured in that series —Cummins was not among them — but it feels like an eternity away. In this span, Australia reclaimed the urn and retained it three times, kissed two 50-over World Cup trophies, a T20 crown and the WTC mace, and Cummins was twice adjudged the best cricketer on the planet. Under him, Australia have won (6) or drawn (3) nine of 10 series. Yet, for all the success, he has not been able to win a series against India.

On the eve of the first Test in Perth, he dwelled on the desire to beat India. “For about half in the change room, we haven’t won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. So it’s one of the last things to tick off,” he said.

A few months ago, Nathan Lyon dwelled on “10 years of unfinished business”. “It’s been a long time, and I know we’re extremely hungry to turn things around, especially here at home,” he would say. On different occasions, most of his teammates had echoed his sentiments.

Everything — preparation, vacations, pitch-curating, media coverage — has gravitated to this series. The build-up began months ago. In almost every press conference this year, Cummins has been probed about the India series. He would give detailed answers too, like “expect Cameron Green to have a greater workload with the ball” or “need to sustain the first-choice pace attack.” Green, thus, was asked to bowl more in Sheffield Shield Games. The first-string pace pack was rotated. A handy second-string was built.

The pressure thus has been simmering. Cummins asserted there wasn’t any and defanged the heat of the question with a beatific smile. “I’m not sure if it’s pressure,” he said in the pre-match press conference. “You always feel pressure playing at home.”

But behind the platitudes lurked genuine hurt. Over the last 30 years, only South Africa, with their abundance of fast-bowling wealth, has shaken Australia more often than India. Then, like a recurring nightmare, India has spooked them in the last decade.

Deep wounds

The fractious nature of the last series between them Down Under would amplify the stakes for the hosts. Pundits and players have refrained from slipping words like revenge and vengeance, and have been largely restrained in predicting scorelines, but there is a crushing burden on Cummins’ band to reclaim the trophy. It has pushed Cummins — who though was not the captain the last two times — to an unfamiliar territory. That of an Australian captain under inexorable pressure when hosting India.

It could be Cummins’ lasting stamp as a captain. He missed a great opportunity to seal his immortality in England last year, when his team squandered the chance to win the series. “We’ve retained the Ashes, well done, but really it feels like the job’s not done,” he said after losing the last Test at The Oval. It’s unlikely that he would be granted another opportunity, the next Ashes in England scheduled only in 2027.

But India presents the prospect of a glory shot, its magnitude as grand as the Ashes. Cummins has an exceptional record as Test captain — a victory percentage of 73 — but knows he would need big series wins to acquire cult status. The suffocating weight of expectations has not shrunk him. In the Ashes, he was their irresistible lead act, winning games with the bat, ball, leadership, and at times harnessing the nasty Aussie hidden deep inside him. After the stumping of Jonny Bairstow at Lord’s, the English press ravenously questioned his integrity and the crowd jeered wherever he travelled, but he kept up a smile through everything. He also asserted that he would do the same again.

But in the latter stages of the series, his tactics got stale, predictable and tired. As though the fire within them was extinguished when they realised that they had retained the Ashes. He is soft, yet stern. He exudes obscene balance, be it in his disposition, setting fields and plans, or juggling the workloads of himself and his fellow bowlers.

His characteristics have spilled onto the team too. No outward hostility or one-line barbs, no cheap banter or crude mind games; they are an earthy and congenial group. Some of them are good friends and teammates in IPL franchises. But beneath them is a desire to produce something enduring.

For this generation of Australians – the players, pundits and audience – it would be beating India, the unseemly bogeymen over the last decade. Cummins and crew would be bouncing to land the hardest knockout blow on the Indians.