Australia captain Pat Cummins said he was optimistic about his side’s performance in Indian conditions as the team tries to reclaim the ODI World Cup crown and add to its record of five titles.
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“It feels like we’ve got plenty of game-time coming into the World Cup. We had ODIs in South Africa, India, and the warm-up games,” said Cummins during an event hosted by Carrera Eyewear here on Thursday.
Cummins also touched upon whether playing an ODI series against the host and having players who have plenty of IPL experience will negate India’s home advantage. “It’s pretty similar for most teams. Playing with the crowd’s support and on familiar pitches does have its advantages, but these aren’t totally foreign conditions for us as well,” he said.
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“We are confident going into the match against India. We had a good win in our third ODI, playing a side which is probably close to our strongest XI,” he added.
Australia will not have the services of the injured Travis Head for at least three weeks. “Yeah, it’s not ideal. But we feel really confident with the 14 that we have. If anything happens, we can always sub in another guy.”
Cummins’ men will also have to deal with the absence of a second specialist spinner behind Adam Zampa. “It’s unfortunate that Ashton Agar (injured) has missed out. But we have the off-spin of Glenn Maxwell and he is good enough to bowl 10 overs,” said the 30-year-old.
With injuries to keep an eye on, apart from a hectic schedule, Cummins said his side was focused on managing the players’ workload.
Australia squares off against India, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan in its first four games, all in the span of 12 days. “We’re going to have to play them at some time in the tournament and we might as well play them right at the start. We know that if we do well against these sides, it will show us that we are on the right track.”