AUS vs SA | The Australian Cricket Team will be locking horns against the South African side in the third and final test at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Pat Cummins-led side, who is leading the series by 2-0, have dominated Dean Elgar's men in the contest. However, ahead of the final test against the Proteas and the upcoming series against India, the Aussie captain has shared a 'huge connection' between the venues they are set to play at.
Australia, who will play against South Africa on January 4, expects the SCG pitch to help them prepare for the India tour. Ahead of the 3rd test, Cummins said, "It's (SCG pitch) a huge connection to India. Fast bowling and reverse swing are going to come into it, which we can expect in India. Probably get more spin overs here, our batters are probably going to face more spin here as well, so it's a really good connection. Even personally, captaining here might be a little different to the last few Test matches," Cummins said on Tuesday.
Pat Cummins inspecting SCG pitch
Australia, who could not reach the final of the WTC 2021, are sitting comfortably at the pole to make it to the summit clash in 2023 in Oval. They have 78.57% PCT and have won 10 out of 14 games in the ongoing WTC 2021-2023 cycle. Meanwhile, India are second to them with 58.93% PCT and 8 wins in 14 games.
"It's (WTC final) been a big driver for us over the last couple of years. I think playing in London (in) a final against India, say, at a neutral venue, that's really exciting," Cummins added. The Australian side conceded the second spot in the WTC 2019-2021 after getting docked four points for being two overs behind in a test match. "It was still a new concept so even things like overs rates – it wasn't really spoken about as importantly as perhaps what we think about it now," said the Australian pace spearhead.
"I think we got down to nine minutes down at one stage (in a recent Test) so we just made sure we had Travis Head or 'Smithy' (Steve Smith, two part-time spin bowlers) as an option and we got back basically within a couple of overs. Having just missed out on the World Test Championship final last cycle, that was always going to be a big goal. I think we've been playing fantastically, we've put ourselves in that position to earn that spot early which is a huge driver for us. It's always exciting going to England and playing an Ashes series, but adding in a World Test Championship final is huge," Cummins said.
Inputs from PTI.
