Australian captain Pat Cummins, speaking at the pre-match press conference ahead of the third Test at SCG, spoke about the alarming state of Test cricket in Pakistan, especially overseas.
Pakistan plays very little Test cricket abroad. They play red ball cricket mainly at home. This ongoing series against Australia has brought to the fore Pakistan’s struggles as a Test cricket nation and its rich inclination towards T20I cricket.
Pakistan are on a streak of 16 consecutive Test match losses against Australia, a trend that began in 1995. They have lost two consecutive Test matches by huge margins. The Men in Green lost the first test by 360 runs and the second by 79 runs. They have fallen to fifth position in the current World Test Championship cycle.
Cummins highlighted the struggle of teams like the West Indies and Pakistan while talking about the downward trend of Test cricket in modern cricket. Cummins, as captain, won the World Test Championship final last year against India.
There were some question marks over Pakistan: Pat Cummins
“My hopes are that it will be [Test cricket] even stronger than it is now, in 10 or 20 years. I grew up absolutely loving Test cricket. I think it goes through phases. I know that the South African team does not send its strongest team. I hope it’s a phase. “I think in some respects, before this summer of testing, some of the question marks were against Pakistan and the West Indies,” Cummins said.
“We’ve had two fantastic Test matches against Pakistan, very well supported and big crowds. So I don’t think it’s in as dramatic a decline as is sometimes talked about. But I think there is a problem with the amount of cricket there is, obviously the competition for talent is greater than ever,” he added.
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Cummins further spoke about the importance of the World Test Championship and that this event has given a different importance to Test cricket and given it a new relevance. Furthermore, he talked about getting to a position where 15-20 teams play Test cricket.
“Now that the World Test Championship is on. Every Test match is important. We have a couple of points to offset some excessive fees in England. Every match has a context and it’s a home Test match, every Test match you play is big, but everyone in Australia is even bigger. Ideally, we’ll find a way to make it work where we have 15 or 20 nations testing and they’re all really strong. I understand there are a lot of different challenges so I feel really privileged that in Australia it is a priority and I have great support every time we play. “I don’t know what the silver bullet is, but it would be great if there was,” Cummins added.
Cummins was the Player of the Match in the second Test where he took 10 wickets in the match. 2023 was the year of Pat Cummins, where he retained the Ashes and won the World Test Championship, the World Cup and a Test series against Pakistan. After winning the series, he now aims to sweep.
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