The Australian team is trailing by 0-2 against India in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT). Visitors skipper Pat Cummins will be unavailable for the third test match due to his mother’s illness. Peter Handscomb backed Aussies skipper Cummins’ move to go back to his home soil to be with his family in tough times.
Handscomb applauded Cummins’ zeal to win a test match amid his family illness-
“To be able to sort of put that to one side while he’s (Cummins) out captaining his country and trying to win Test matches is a pretty incredible effort.
“I think that speaks volumes about his character and why he’s been such an incredible captain for us. What he’s been doing is pretty special. But it’s good that he’s home with his family and having that time,” said the right-handed batter.
The world no.3 ranked bowler in test matches, Cummins bowled 13 overs in the Delhi test match–and got lone one wicket of Ravichandran Ashwin in the first innings.
The 29-year-old didn’t bowl any over in the second innings of a second test match. The tall fast bowler became captain of the Australian test cricket team after the resignation of Tim Paine on November 2021.
“It’s pretty understandable that Pat’s gone home and it’s always going to be family first – that’s a good mentality around this group. It’s going to be a big loss, not having those two. But also Mitch Starc is coming back from injury, ‘Greeny’ is coming back from injury so we’ve got a couple of big ins potentially and that’s the exciting part as well,” said Handscomb.
We’re sending all our best wishes to Pat Cummins and his family ❤️ pic.twitter.com/IEdgrkpsoI
— England's Barmy Army (@TheBarmyArmy) February 24, 2023
Peter received the test call for India’s tour after 2019 for Baggy Greens, the 31-year-old didn’t perform well in the first test match with 31 and 6 runs in the Nagpur game. The right-hander scored an unbeaten 72 runs in the second test match of BGT.
India will be looking to win at least one test match in the remaining two games left in the series to reach the World Test Championship (WTC) finals, Men in Blue have successfully retained the BGT for four consecutive times with two series win coming down under.
Team India played the inaugural WTC final in 2021, Virat Kohli-led side lost the match by 8 wickets against New Zealand. Rohit Sharma-led side will take on Australia for the third test match at Indore on 1st March.