IND vs AUS: Since the end of the 2019 Ashes, Cummins, Hazlewood and Starc are the only specialist quicks to play Test cricket for Australia. (AP)
Australia have a “curiously poor record across the third, fourth and fifth Tests of series since 2018” according to an analysis in Code Sports website of Australia. It’s what might have dictated a few load-management calls in the Australian ranks, including preserving Pat Cummins’ fitness as he didn’t play in the Sheffield Shield so the home team could “finish the five-Test series strongly.”
As the cricket jamboree moved east from Adelaide to Brisbane, there were concerns of the spectre of the recurring theme pointed out by CricViz stats. These say, “that the longer a series progresses, the worse off the Australian attack fares.”
The ratio of one in every four Tests it plays once a series reaches the third Test, drops to below one in five, when the series stretches out to the fourth and fifth Tests. This trend was noted during the last Ashes and the deciding Test of the last India tour.
This didn’t stop Pat Cummins’ side from claiming the World Test Championship or holding the Ashes since 2018, but the devil data may rear its head, given the Indians are in town.
“Australia has won just 28.6 per cent of third Tests in a series that is four matches or longer, while that win ratio drops even further to just 20 per cent in the fourth and fifth Test matches of a series,” according to Code Sports.
CricViz analyst Ben Jones was quoted in Code Sports as saying, “The numbers are concerning for the hosts, no question. While India’s bowling attack does look alarmingly reliant on Jasprit Bumrah and to a lesser extent Mohammed Siraj, the batting is simply out of form – (but) there is quality there. As the miles go into these legends’ legs, and the Indian batters get progressively more familiar with the conditions, you do wonder if Australia’s dominance with the ball at Adelaide is replicable as we move east. Arguably, this is the price of greatness.”
Jones had flagged that since the end of the 2019 Ashes, Cummins, Hazlewood and Starc are the only specialist quicks to play Test cricket for Australia, besides Mitchell Marsh and Cameron Green and Scott Boland occasionally.
“Their schedule is not the busiest around, but even with that considered it’s notable how when compared to other sides, Australia rely enormously on a very small number of quicks,” he was quoted by Code Sports.
However history suggests, and Fox Cricket writes, that the Gabba favours Nathan Lyon (51 wickets at 28.31), Starc (47 at 28.93), Cummins (40 at 18.22) who are third, fourth and fifth highest wicket takers at Brisbane behind Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath.
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