Follow UsAustralian Test captain Pat Cummins feels that his bowling unit will be refreshed and ready for the series-decider against Pakistan in Lahore, starting on March 21. Despite bundling out Pakistan for 148 in the first innings of the second Test, Australia couldn’t win the game as the hosts batted out 171.4 overs in the fourth innings to pull off an impressive draw. The three-match series is still tied at 0-0, with everything to play for in Lahore.
"Had a walkaround and everyone is fine, there are no big injury concerns. We knew it was a 15-day tour, basically back-to-back, think that's why we protected ourselves on the last day of the last Test (in Rawalpindi). We know what we've signed up for, so will put everything into the next week. We've got four days, so one extra than what we had before this Test to recover," said Cummins.
Spinners Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Swepson bowled more than 60 overs in the second Test, while Pat Cummins sent down 39 overs, including a superb seven-over spell on day five. Mitchell Starc (34) and allrounder Cameron Green (23) too had to bowl a decent number of overs. However, the visitors have enough options in the squad. Josh Hazlewood didn't play the second Test, while they also have Ashes-heor Scott Boland, Mark Steketee and Ashton Agar waiting in the wings.
"We've got a full contingent if we need to call on anyone. The quick bowlers, Starcy and I and Greeny, all bowled between 20 and 35 overs or something like that, so not a huge workload. (It's) probably the spinners, make sure they are looked after."
Debutant legspinner Swepson bowled 53.4 overs in the fourth innings but couldn't pick up a single wicket. However, he did create a couple of chances and Cummins was surprised with the fact that he went wicketless.
"I thought Swepo bowled fantastically today. I don't know how he's ended up with those figures. The way he was able to be a real wicket-taking option on a really good wicket without really footmarks to the right-handers I was just really impressed with how he went about it."
Cummins feels Australia won't make too many changes in terms of tactics going into the third and final Test. "I think the positive thing is we've created more than 10 chances each time. If we'd taken a couple of those chances it might have been a different scenario, and we'll keep reviewing it. Having two spinners today in those conditions, I thought we bounced between plans really well. I walked off the field at the end of the day's play yesterday as well as today knowing there wasn't a plan we hadn't had a really good chance at.
"In terms of tactics, I think overall I wouldn't change too much to be honest. Batting into day three gave us that chance to really have a crack at them on day three, we probably went better than we would have expected, but over here the wickets are pretty good.
"We tried to bat two and a half days on the best time on the wicket, hoping it was going to break up on day four and five but it held together and they batted really well... I thought Babar, Rizwan, Shafique... they all batted fantastically the last two days, the wicket was not playing too many tricks but they batted superbly and made it really hard to get that breakthrough and when we did, the next batter stuck at it as well."