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SYDNEY: Australian captain Pat Cummins is confident that a dominant Ashes series win can start “something big” as the star pacer hunts the away wins required to become the best Test side in the world.
Assuming the role after Tim Paine resigned over a ‘sexting’ scandal, Pat Cummins enjoyed a dream start to his captaincy career and secured a 4-0 series victory over England late on day three of the fifth Test.
Australia will face vastly different conditions when they visit Pakistan for a full tour, their first to the South Asian country since 1998, beginning with three Tests in March.
Australia will play three Tests, three one-day internationals (ODIs) and one Twenty-20 international (T20I) match in a month-long series commencing from March 3 in Pakistan.
“That’s the next big challenge,” Cummins told reporters on Monday. “I think the best teams in the past not only won at home but they were really successful overseas as well,” he added.
Cummins said, “Pakistan next on the radar for us, it’s going to be huge. Lots of our young players have not played a lot overseas. Even in the last couple of years, I don’t think we played a Test overseas.”
The pitch in Karachi, where Australia’s first Test against Pakistan is slated to begin on March 3, is unlikely to resemble the green deck at Bellerive. However, Cummins believes a summer spent on uncharacteristically bowler-friendly strips will hold Australia in good stead as they seek to adapt overseas.
“The way we played on day one, we were 3 for 12 in quite foreign conditions to what we normally expect in Australia – green seaming wicket,” he said.
“The way Marnus, Travis Head, Cameron Green took on the game was a really good template for any conditions that are really foreign. We can be the type of team that are brave enough to take that positivity overseas if we need to. That puts us in a great place. I’m really excited about the upcoming Pakistan tour,” he added.
The Test matches between Australia and Pakistan will be played in Karachi, Rawalpindi and Lahore from March 3 to 25, while all four white-ball matches will be played in Lahore from March 29 to April 5. They are also scheduled to tour Sri Lanka and India later this year.
