3 November - Ahmedabad - Australia Captain Pat Cummins pre-match press conference
[Reporter:]
Have you got 11 players and if you have, have you got a team?
[Pat Cummins:]
Yeah, we've got 13. No, we'll announce it at the toss tomorrow, the 11.
[Reporter:]
Do you want to speculate wildly on what it might be?
[Pat Cummins:]
It's one of the 11 or the 13. Yeah, find out tomorrow. But I don't think it'll be too many surprises.
[Reporter:]
Tough to miss a couple of key players out of this key clash. Sort of a tough situation for you.
[Pat Cummins:]
Yeah, it's not ideal. Yeah, both have been star players of the tournament so far at different times. So that's the way it is. We knew at the start of the tournament we were going to need a full squad of 15. And yeah, I'm not even sure we've played the same 11 two games in a row through injury or selection. So, it's kind of unfortunate, but we knew over a two-month tournament you're going to have to chop and change a bit.
[Reporter:]
By when can we expect them back?
[Pat Cummins:]
Maxi's hopefully for the clash against Afghanistan, so he'll just miss this one. But he's trained well yesterday and still taking it day by day, but hoping he'll just miss this one and then Mitch we'll wait and see - he'll definitely come back I don't think it'll be a super long trip back home to Perth but yeah main thing is he's back home and we'll give him as much time and space as he needs.
[Reporter:]
You captained in two Ashes series now, just the chatter that always like you know that develops in the lead-up to an Australia-England clash regardless of where they are in the table and where you are at this stage of the World Cup, have you reached a point where you get amused by it, you pay heed to it, or is it just one of those things and you just dismiss it?
[Pat Cummins:]
Yeah, I mean, I've played in, I think, many other games against England over the years as well. Even growing up, you watch it and you hear about it. There's always banter before any game. So, I think you're immune to it. You know that cricket speaks for itself. Everything else is just preamble and noise to a game that everyone's really excited about.
[Reporter:]
And just on your own bowling pat, you've said throughout the tournament that It's been in a state of evolution, and you've been really happy with it. Just with fast bowling itself, India seem to do it a certain way. And you guys seem to really come into your own once the ball gets softer. Is it conscious, where you're waiting for it to get beaten up a little bit and then you come into your own with your cutters and all that?
[Pat Cummins:]
You have different phases in 50-over cricket, so we try and get the most out of the new ball. Josh Hazelwood and Starc are obviously world-class opening bowlers, so we try and get as much as we can out of that. Once the white ball stops swinging there's not really much in for the quick so if anything, once the ball gets a little bit softer and older, that's where it sometimes doesn't ping off the bat as hard. And sometimes the cutters and the spin bowlers, you get more out of the wicket.
So yeah, you've got to be able to bowl in all three phases if you want to be a bowler in any ODI side. And I feel like we're doing that pretty well at the moment.
[Reporter:]
Currently all teams can have just 15 member squads. But given the long format of this World Cup and also the extensive travel up and down the country, do you think that teams should be allowed to have, say, a couple of more members in the squad?
[Pat Cummins:]
Yeah, to be honest, I mean, it's a two-month tournament. You wouldn't want to be in a position where, say, somewhere like a team like New Zealand have had some injuries and luckily, they've been able to hold someone like Kane in the squad but if suddenly you had to rule him out - I think that wouldn't be good for a cricket or a World Cup. It's not like you can poach players from other countries, so I always kind of think as many players as you need, you should be able to pick from.
[Reporter:]
Were you in the golf group with Maxi? And if not, what did you see? And if not, what was your reaction when you found out what had happened?
[Pat Cummins:]
Yeah, I played golf with him in the Arvo. He played quite nicely. Yeah, and that I was on the bus - yeah unfortunate, one of those things - a freak accident, so unfortunate but it's good to know something not serious.
[Reporter:]
I'm not sure if you crossed Joe Root’s comments yesterday that he wouldn't swap any members of his team for yours what did you make of those
[Pat Cummins:]
Yeah, got to know those just before - I mean yeah of course he'd say that, would say the same about our team - so yeah, wouldn't read too much into it.
[Reporter:]
Kind of maybe going back to before this game did you kind of have this one circled as one where you'd actually would get all 15 players available and now that that's not the case do you in your head have an idea of what your best 11 is
[Pat Cummins:]
To be honest once the tournament started, we kind of thought we'd have 15 available. But one day cricket more than any other format, you have injuries, it's high intensity, it's games are close together. So, we always knew there was going to be a certain amount of attrition.
I mean, the good thing is we're still three games away from the semis. We need to obviously make the semifinals, but hopefully this is kind of the last little kind of hiccup where we've got a smaller squad to pick from and then once we get closer, we've got a full squad. But I've kind of got in my mind the main 11, the way that we want to play, but really happy with our squad. And I think we've shown throughout this tournament we've been able to mix up the batting order and anyone that's come in has stepped up and done really well.
[Reporter:]
Is it difficult for you as captain if you don't get to actually play a game maybe before the semi-finals with that best 11 to know what combinations work and that kind of thing?
[Pat Cummins:]
No, I don't think so. We've played a lot of ODIs over the last couple of months so it feels like everyone's coming in with lots of game time behind them. Again, the good thing with our team is we've got plenty of all-rounders so out there in the field I always feel like there's plenty of options we can go to.
So, I think that's always the hardest thing in 50 over cricket is finding 50 overs of bowling. But I feel like we've got plenty of resources.
[Reporter:]
Just on your own bowling, according to the speed guns you were nudging 146, 147 the other night, which is as fast as we've seen you, according to the speed guns, has that been a focus to bowl faster in these conditions or just sort of happened?
[Pat Cummins:]
I think a lot of it probably comes back to our body and how we're feeling and I feel really good at the moment. I'm really happy with how it's coming out. Having almost two months off between the Ashes and here, it felt like it was a great chance to freshen up and feel strong. So, yeah, really happy with my body's and how it's coming out. And yeah, without much swing or seam on offer like you might have in a Test match you're just trying to bowl kind of running and ripping so yeah been pretty happy.
[Reporter:]
How surprised have you been by England's struggles and looking on from afar what do you think has gone on with them?
[Pat Cummins:]
Yeah, a little bit surprised, they've obviously got some class players and performed really well in these kind of tournaments over the last few years. A little bit surprised in terms of what's gone wrong, probably not for me to say, these tournaments are pretty fickle you see it in T20 tournament around the world, sometimes the best-looking teams just don't start off well and then find it hard to kind of gain ground so yeah.
[Reporter:]
Obviously sort of emotions and passions run high during an Ashes summer in England. What's the message to your players? Do you want them to, are you looking for them to make a clean break from that or given the crossover of personnel in both sides, would you actually like to harness a bit of that kind of Ashes fire?
[Pat Cummins:]
Yeah, we've certainly got a lot of different personnel. So, that was a couple of months ago. It's done. It's a new game, new tournament. But I always think there's a little bit of healthy, a healthy amount of rivalry is good, especially our playing group, we're quite a chilled, calm group, so sometimes when we get a little bit more fired up, I actually don't think it's too bad a thing.
[Reporter:]
Apart from a couple of games, we have seen a lot of very one-sided matches in this tournament. Just wondering if you guys have talked about it, thought about it, been able to put your finger on why that might be. And also, it's sort of a bit of a big picture thing, but if you were in charge of cricket for a few days or whatever, are there any changes you would make to this format that you think would be helpful?
[Pat Cummins:]
Yeah, I can't really put my finger on the one-sided games at all, really. I know a few teams have put on big totals batting first and trying to keep up with the run rate, the second side falls away. But there's been games vice versa as well, which, yeah, it just happens. It's just been a bit of a quirk of the tournament.
In terms of rule changes, I'd be a terrible person to ask, because I'm way too bowler-friendly. So yeah, wrong person. Yeah, eight fielders out, 100 metre boundaries, that kind of thoughts.
[Reporter:]
You've played a lot of cricket since 2019, but going back to the semi-final against England in 2019 it was a big sort of red-letter day for England - did you feel like they still are a team that have that level of performance in them or do you think maybe this is a team that's that sort of peaked back then and is sort of on the way down.
[Pat Cummins:]
Yeah, again, probably not for me to say. I mean, they've got a lot of similar personnel, so. Yeah, they're going to be dangerous tomorrow. You've got to be careful of any team with that kind of calibre of players.
[Reporter:]
You said it’s a different series and that was few months ago but after everything that happened in the summer would mathematically this weekend mean anymore?
[Pat Cummins:]
I mean it helps our chances to get into the semi so that's probably the overarching feeling of winning this one. I mean it's been an old rivalry so yeah, you're not going to lie, if they beat us, I know it's probably just that little bit sweeter than beating other teams. And the same with their history of how well they've done in white ball cricket. Yeah, the rivalry, it would be a great win.
[Reporter:]
Yeah, about the stadium, I mean, expecting more crowd tomorrow, considering the huge size of it, and do you expect some of your backers to be there? Possibly the Indian crowd backing Australia, considering that you guys are popular in India?
[Pat Cummins:]
Yeah, we’ll take any support we can get. It feels like that MCG where you can feel like the crowd hasn't really turned up and then you look at the numbers and it's 30,000 or 40,000. So, it's a beautiful stadium. I've played here a few times and, the field and the wicket is always great. We love playing here. It feels a bit more like an Aussie ground than anywhere else. So, yeah, hopefully a big crowd and they say a great game of cricket.