ADELAIDE: Australia’s Test captain Pat Cummins praised experienced left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc following the home team’s 10-wicket win over India in the second Test of the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) on Sunday .
After a disappointing 295-run defeat in the series opener in Perth, the hosts staged a comprehensive turnaround by defeating the men in blue in the second Test, concluded earlier today here at Adelaide Oval.
The left-arm pacer laid a solid foundation for victory by defeating India in the first innings with a six-wicket haul, which featured the scalps of Perth Test centurions Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli.
Mitchell Starc further diminished India’s chances in the second innings of the aforementioned game as he claimed important wickets of Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant.
It returned brilliant results of 7/108.
“We know we are a good unit, and to have someone like Starc is incredible,” said Pat Cummins, who recorded five wickets in the second innings.
“He does it time and time again. He’s been doing it for over a decade. So feel very lucky and privileged.”
However, it was Travis Head who was named player of the match thanks to his knock of 140 runs in the first innings.
Head, who scored match-winning centuries against India in the World Test Championship (WTC) and ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 finals, led Australia to a huge first innings lead, which eventually translated into a comfortable 10-wicket victory .
“He loves to hit here,” Cummins said of the left-hander.
“Again, one of those momentum shifts. The game could have gone either way when he came out to bat and just knocked the ball out of their hands.”
Reacting to a crushing defeat, India captain Rohit Sharma shared that his team wanted to emulate the “special” result of the Perth Test but was wary of the challenge that a pink-ball Test possesses.
“What we did in Perth was really, really special and we wanted to come here and do it again,” Rohit said.
“But every Test match has its own challenge. We knew it would be a challenge with the pink ball. Australia were better than us,” he added.
Australia’s 10-wicket win helped level the five-match series against India 1-0, with the third Test scheduled to be played in Brisbane from December 14-18.
