‘Doesn’t matter how long it takes’: Cummins aims to wear out England

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Pat Cummins may prove the biggest winner from England’s Bazball tactics as the Australia captain prepares to lead his team into the second Test at Lord’s, beginning on Wednesday.

Australia are considering replacing Scott Boland with Mitchell Starc, but Cummins will play all five Tests if England’s frantic batters continue to fall so regularly.

The Australians also want to keep England’s ageing attack in the field as long as possible, putting extra miles into their legs during the most condensed Ashes series in history.

“I’ve played a lot of Tests back to back, and you certainly feel much fresher when – in the first Test match – you’ve had a big gap in between both innings, or you only bowled 30 overs as opposed to 40, 50,” Cummins said.

“Our No.1 goal when we go out there is to score runs and, if it takes longer, it doesn’t matter to us. It doesn’t matter how long it takes.”

Cummins bowled a modest 32.2 overs across the two innings at Edgbaston, including an inspired spell in the second innings when he finished with 4-63 to help change the game.

Pat Cummins celebrates after taking the wicket of Ben Stokes in the second innings at Edgbaston.Credit: Getty

England’s rapid scoring also means regular wickets because of the extra risk, which equates to fewer overs the Australians need to bowl. England’s first innings of 8-393 declared came in just 78 overs and their 273 in the second innings from 66.2 overs, for a total of 144.2 overs.

Australia finished seven runs behind England’s first innings total, yet took 116.1 overs to get there, largely due to Usman Khawaja’s eight-hour 141. Their match-winning 8-282 in the second innings took a further 92.3 overs.

That’s an additional 64.2 overs England were forced to bowl. Their task of finding bowlers to plug that hole was made more difficult by the fact captain Ben Stokes can’t bowl much because of a chronic left knee problem, and recalled spinner Moeen Ali suffered a damaged spinning finger from his sudden increase in workload.

As a result, England’s best bowler in the first Test, Stuart Broad, 37, delivered 43 overs; the vocal Ollie Robinson 40.4; and grumpy Jimmy Anderson, who turns 41 next month, bowled 38. By contrast Josh Hazlewood, returning from injury, bowled 25 overs, and Boland 26.

An out-of-sorts Anderson is expected to be replaced in the next Test by the express pace of Mark Wood, but that could compound England’s workload problem. He has played just two Tests in the past year because of injuries and is best used in short bursts to unsettle the Australians.

While England scored about four-and-a-half runs an over across the match – compared to Australia’s more traditional rate of just over three – Cummins said he was not greatly concerned about bowlers having higher economy rates, so long as their runs-per-wicket average stays roughly the same.

“Probably not as worried about how many runs per over [if] you feel like you’re going to take a wicket,” Cummins said.

“You feel like you’re going to average around about similar to what you normally do, it’s always just going to happen a little bit faster [against Bazball]. So I think you’d look at conditions, who do you think is going to create the most opportunities. Obviously, everyone’s not hoping to go for six runs an over, but if it does happen, it’s not the end of the world.”

While the conditions at Lord’s look like they would suit Boland’s nagging seamers, particularly when he became unplayable during a 20-minute period between showers at Edgbaston under heavy cloud cover, he was also the most expensive and least productive bowler.

England’s batters came down the wicket against Boland to upset his length. He claimed just two wickets for the match and conceded about five-and-a-half runs an over compared to Hazlewood, who claimed three wickets and went for four-and-a-half an over, and Cummins, who claimed four wickets and went for four an over.

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