Nice thing to have all-rounders Green and Marsh in our top six: Cummins

One major reason Australia failed to seal the series against India last time despite having a 1-0 lead was workload. The trio of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, and Josh Hazlewood played the entire series without a break, and it was evident in their performance as the series progressed. 

Both in Sydney and Brisbane, the Australian pace unit lacked the tooth required to fight toe-to-toe with the visitors. However, this time around, they are blessed with the all-round duo of Cameron Green and Mitchell Marsh, who will be expected to play a bigger part this time around. 

Australian skipper Pat Cummins hailed the two all-rounders, stating that it is ‘huge’ to have them in the setup, and asserted that Australia had been pretty light with resources the last time they faced India. 

"It's been huge [having the allrounders]. In some ways we haven't had to use them as much as we thought we would. Which is a great thing. The last couple of summers have been pretty light [with] quick Test matches,” Cummins said at the launch of Play Cricket week, reported ESPNCricinfo. 

"I suspect this summer might be a bit different at time. We'll be drawing on Cam Green and Mitch Marsh a bit more. Even someone like Cam basically started in Shield cricket as a bowler but hasn't had to bowl heaps in Test matches. Now he is a few years older, I think we will be leaning on him a bit more."

Since the turn of last year, Green has bowled 124.4 overs in the red-ball format. Not just that, both Marsh and Head too have contributed with the ball, picking up 12 wickets in between them, giving Cummins a lot of options to choose form. 

"The first point is they both absolutely make the top six on their batting alone which is a luxury. We're really lucky that Nathan Lyon bowls plenty of overs, so you don't necessarily have to have an allrounder, but it makes a big difference to have that fifth bowling option. And with someone like Cam and Mitch we have six bowling options. It's a really nice thing to have. Top six should always make the team on their batting."

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