Adam Gilchrist heaps praise on Cummins' performance in Adelaide Test, says 'he was outstanding'
Dec 10, 2024
Adelaide [Australia], December 10 : Former cricketer Adam Gilchrist on Tuesday showered praise on Australia skipper Pat Cummins for his stunning performance in the Adelaide Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) against India, reported Fox Cricket.
Earlier on Sunday, Rohit Sharma-led India faced a setback in the prestigious BGT series as they conceded a 10-wicket defeat to Australia in the Adelaide Test. With the win, the hosts have levelled the series 1-1.
Cummins was extraordinary in the recently concluded Adelaide Test, the Aussie skipper picked up seven wickets and helped the hosts clinch a 10-wicket win over India in the BGT.
Speaking on Fox Cricket's The Follow-on podcast, Gilchrist said that Cummins was outstanding in the Adelaide Test. The former cricketer commented on Cummins' performance in Adelaide and said that it looked like he had a grease and oil change after Perth's defeat.
"Cummins was outstanding, he looked like if there needed a bit of a grease and oil change after Perth and a tune-up, he was purring by the end of it, so that was terrific to watch," Gilchrist was quoted by Fox Cricket as saying.
Gilchrist added that Cummins looked more aggressive in his celebration after picking every wicket.
"You could see just through his celebrations that... every wicket that he took he was more aggressive in his celebration. Not in that lose control extent but you could just see that clearly they'd been stung by a bit of criticism around after their performance (in Perth) and they internally would have been so disappointed with the way they played in Perth," he added.
"So it (Adelaide celebrations ) showed you what it meant to them and they knew that they were back at the level they want to play their cricket," he further added.
Recapping the Adelaide Test, India won the toss and opted to bat first. However, they had to face the wrath of a moving, erratic pink ball and its mastermind, Mitchell Starc (6/48). Except for a 69-run stand for the second wicket between KL Rahul (37 in 64 balls with six fours) and Shubman Gill (31 in 51 balls, with five fours) and a fighting 42 in 54 balls (three fours and three sixes) from Nitish Kumar Reddy, there was not much highlights from India who were skittled out for 180 runs. Skipper Cummins and Scott Boland also took two wickets.
In the first innings, a 67-run partnership between Nathan McSweeney (39 in 109 balls, with six fours) and Marnus Labuschagne (64 in 126 balls, with nine fours) for second wicket set the platform for Travis Head to impose his domination over Indian bowlers yet again with a counter-attacking 140 in 141 balls, with 17 fours and four sixes, just when Aussies lost some regular wickets. His century took Australia to 337 runs and gave them a 157-run lead.
Jasprit Bumrah (4/61) and Mohammed Siraj (4/98) were top bowlers for India. Ravichandran and Nitish got a wicket each.
In their second innings, India appeared even more toothless as the star-studded top-order and middle-order returned back to pavillion despite starts from Jaiswal (24 in 31 balls, with four boundaries), Gill (28 in 30 balls, with three fours) while KL Rahul (7) and Virat Kohli (11 in 21 balls with a four) failed to score well. India ended day two at 128/5.
On the third day, Pant also lost his wicket for 28 in 31 balls, with five fours. From there on, it was not looking back for the Aussies, who skittled out India for 175 runs in 36.5 overs. India led by just 18 runs, setting Aussies 19 runs to win.
Skipper Cummins (5/67) took a majestic five-wicket haul, his eighth as a captain. Boland took 3/51 while Starc took 2/60.
Set a target of 19 runs, Khawaja (10*) and McSweeney (9*) chased it down without breaking a sweat in 3.2 overs.