Pacer Cummins warns Indians of chin music

If one were to recall India’s batting against England here on Sunday, it was pretty clear that there was little inhibition from the Indian batsmen against the short-pitched stuff.

While they didn’t send the ball rocketing to the fence every time they pulled, there was no denying their intent to stand up to the challenge.

That, however, doesn’t appear to have convinced Aussie quick Pat Cummins who wants to soften up the likes of Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina among others, with bouncers. “Yeah a few of them aren’t too fond of the short ball,” said Cummins when asked if the Aussie attack had any plans in place for the Indian batsmen.

“We will try and rough up a few feathers. You know, Raina and Gambhir and a few of those guys, they are never comfortable with the short ball and we are probably gonna dig in a couple of them. Hopefully that pays off,” he remarked while quietly raising the tempo for Friday’s Super Eight match between the two fierce rivals.

The Australian attack, in fact, went to pieces against the West Indies who clobbered 191 runs off them, inviting the ire of coach Mickey Arthur. “Yeah, we weren’t pretty pleased as well. We had plans but probably we didn’t execute them all. We are trying to work on that and we are trying to make sure that we go in with a clean mind and clear plan and not get ruffled or too disturbed all that. Try and come back strong,” he explained.

Asked how the Australians planned to tackle the Indian spinners, Cummins thought his batsmen wouldn’t struggle. “I am not a batsman but yes we have batted well so far. Yes, if we can nullify the key spinners that will go a long way in winning the tie and we have done that before. You know (David) Warner, Watto (Shane Watson) and (Michael) Hussey have been brilliant. It’s like playing any other bowler, it is about turning the strike and one or two good overs and anything is possible.”

At the same time, Cummins sounded Australia would be wary of the unpredictability of this Indian side. “Yeah pretty funny, the other night they did not play with their full-strength side so I guess you never know what is going to come your way,” he said about India’s 90-run win over England. “They are world-class players and everyone has got a lot of experience due to the IPL. They have all sorts of players. Yeah, we will go a bit harder and probably everything pays off and there we go,” he noted.