15 October - Lucknow - Australia Captain Pat Cummins pre-match press conference
[Reporter:]
[inaudible question]
[Pat Cummins:]
To win, the first one. Yeah, not an ideal start at all. So hopefully turn it around.
[Reporter:]
Have you settled on the 11 for tomorrow?
[Pat Cummins:]
We'll announce it at the toss tomorrow, but I dare say there won't be too many changes.
[Reporter:]
And just in regards to the conditions here because so few of the squad have played in India at this time of year are you sort of learning on the run a bit would you say?
[Pat Cummins:]
Yeah, it's a tricky one you know even ODI cricket compared to T20s played over half the game in daylight, half at night. So, it's a bit different to T20 cricket.
Yeah, find these wickets hard to read as well. Like sometimes they look terrible and they play beautifully and the opposite. Sometimes they look flat and they end up spinning. So, it is tough. You just got to adapt on the fly sometimes.
[Reporter:]
You've won two tosses, bowled first once, batted first once. Is it sort of got to a point where you just pick one now and sort of stick with it and hope that it works for the rest of the tournament? Or is it more conditions? Like you still assess the conditions going forward and make a judgment call on the day.
[Pat Cummins:]
Yeah, you still got to assess conditions. You know, India is the big country. So, Chennai is a long way away from say, up north Delhi or somewhere like that. So, there are big differences, but as I said, it's not a perfect art, not a perfect science. It's, yeah, it's whatever you do, most games are kind of 50-50, whether you bat first or bowl first, the winner is historical. So, whatever you do, you got to do it well.
[Reporter:]
And what did you see from the previous match in terms of how to go about batting on this surface? I know it's a different wicket for tomorrow's game, but it looked like South Africa copied what you guys did in the last 10 overs of your bowling innings and used that well against Australia's batters.
[Pat Cummins:]
I thought we bowled really well at the end of that innings and you know, fair play to South Africa. I thought they bowled really well their whole innings. Cutters seemed to work quite well last game, even just being a slightly bigger field here, that normally helps out the cutters into the wicket a little bit. So that's one thing. I think the way they bowled under lights, there was a fair bit in the wicket. So, we get it on our terms like that. Just got to make the most of it.
[Reporter:]
You say you're a little bit shocked to find yourselves where you are, two games down, two defeats. How's the mood in the squad? How are the levels of confidence?
[Pat Cummins:]
Yeah, it's not ideal at all. Yeah, I think everyone's, well, after the last game was a little bit flat, but the last couple of days have been really good. Everyone's kind of rolled up their sleeves and want to try and get to work and make amends. So, the mood in the camp has been fantastic. Everyone's great. Everyone's desperate to turn it around. I think looking back at 2019, India and South Africa were the two teams that we lost to in the round games there. I think in the last year, they're kind of the two teams that we've had the most trouble against. So, you know, the opportunity now is we've got some teams we haven't played for a while that we've had a lot of success against and be really confident when we go out there.
[Reporter:]
After the first two games, there's just been a general talk over here everywhere about oh this doesn't look like an Australian team and but the Australian team plays like an Australian team and they have the backs against the wall - but do you have an idea of what it is to play like an Australian team in your head or are you all about just winning and losing and getting on with it?
[Pat Cummins:]
Yeah, no still haven't really quite put my finger on what playing in the Australian way means And I've been playing for a long time - no doubt we haven't been up to the standard that we like to hold. We've been off the mark and been outplayed both games. When we're at our best, we're putting big runs on the board. We're putting the pressure back into the opposition. Us bowlers are taking wickets through the middle. So, we haven't been able to pull any of that together so far. So yeah, we know what makes us a really good team.
Again, it wasn't that long ago. We're number one in the world. So, we don't have to look back too far to work out when we're playing our best.
[Reporter:]
And just on the last game, Pat, overall, there might not be a lot of positives you took from it, but just the last 10 overs, the way you came back as well, adjusted to the pitch, and then the others did as well. So, do you take that as one of those positives and you say, look, we adjusted well?
[Pat Cummins:]
Yeah, that was one big positive. That's as well as I think Starcy, Josh and myself have bowled, you know, to close out in innings. At one stage there, I think they had 2 down with 15 overs to go. We were probably staring down 350, high 300. So, to keep them to just over 300, I thought it was fantastic. So, I think that becomes a bit of a blueprint and that's kind of the standard we'd like to get to each game.
[Reporter:]
The tournament is such that you've picked a squad and you can't really make any changes now, unless like there's an injury or whatever. Do you think that like, if there was a possibility that you could do so that you still believe you have the right balance of squad or do you think things could be a little different in a different sort of scenario?
[Pat Cummins:]
No, I'm really happy with who we've got here. There's obviously a couple injuries that have forced our hands a little bit, but no, we wouldn't change any of our personnel.
[Reporter:]
Hi Pat. So, Australia's successful campaigns across World Cups have largely been built around specialists. This time around you have a number of all-rounders and a lot of options in both batting and bowling departments. Do you feel somewhere it's a lack of role clarity that's hurting the team a bit?
[Pat Cummins:]
No, I don't think so. I think the good thing and the luxury we have with the all-rounders is they all make it into the team on the back of their primary skill, which for most of them is batting. And it's fortunate we've got guys like Stoinis and Maxwell and Marsh that can provide overs and do it really well.
So, there's certainly sometimes – some teams I’ve played in where you've got to try and fit in all-rounders that might not make the top seven batters or the top four bowlers, but we're in a really good place.
[Reporter:]
[inaudible question]
[Pat Cummins:]
Hopefully. I mean, we're obviously 0-2, so we've got to start winning and start winning quick. Every game now becomes almost like a final. You've got to win just about all of them.