Pat Cummins, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne
Whatever tempo gets thrown at us or what the game needs, we must make sure we match that,” he said. Cummins knows those match-winning bursts remain part of Australia’s identity, but he wants his players to be comfortable when there are no quick breakthroughs or whirlwind innings. “I think we’ve got to get a little bit better, and we can get a bit better getting into the grind, It might not be the glamorous stuff, but it’s that grinding out of sessions, not these whirlwind innings at times.
“So that’s a couple of changes that we’ve got to match up.
We haven’t played too many of those kinds of Test matches in the last few years, particularly in Australia,” Cummins said at his pre-match press conference. “We don’t know our team at this stage; the selectors will come down here and we’ll just want to have one more look at the ground,” he said. Australia have often thrived on explosive individual performances, but Pat Cummins wants his team to prepare for a very different kind of Test challenge against South Africa: one where patience, discipline and the ability to grind out sessions could matter more than spectacular moments. With conditions expected to fluctuate on a traditionally tricky Durban surface, the captain believes his side must be ready to adapt to whatever the game throws at them. Australia’s recent Test cricket has often been fast-paced. Their last Test against Bangladesh in August finished inside two days, while two of the five Ashes Tests against England last summer also ended within two days. Cummins feels that has meant his side has not had enough opportunities to practise grinding their way through long, attritional contests. “For the batsmen and for the bowling group as well, getting into that grind is important. What are the conditions going to throw at us? We’ve got a full squad. Everyone brings something a little bit different and it’s just trying to work out what we think the best combinations are,” he added.
With the first Test beginning at Kingsmead on Friday, Cummins acknowledged that Australia cannot always rely on a Travis Head hundred or a Mitchell Starc burst to swing matches in their favour.