The Australian skipper, Pat Cummins, has revealed the strategies behind his “dream ball,” which on day two of the Melbourne Test dismissed Pakistan’s best batsman, Babar Azam.
Pat Cummins gave a press conference after the game and detailed his strategy for getting Babar out.”It’s a dream ball—that’s what you try and bowl most balls, but it rarely comes off,” stated Pat Cummins.
Very pleased with that one.”That wasn’t a deliberate ball to seam in,” he continued. The chance of that seaming in or out is 50%. I try to create a little angle, and ideally, the batter doesn’t know what it’s doing if I don’t.
It’s also a little more predictable to swing the ball because the hitter can see it early and there are fewer margins for error, according to Cummins. He doesn’t swing the ball too much, but he does try now and then. He concentrates on getting some seam movement off the pitch most of the time.
With the score at 194-6 at the end of the day’s play, Pakistan was in a difficult situation. They were 124 runs behind Australia at the time. With 29 runs, Mohammad Rizwan was holding steady, while Aamer Jamal had not lost in two. They had the difficult chore of keeping their team’s innings consistent.
Especially in red-ball cricket, Babar Azam hasn’t had a fantastic year. In 2023, he has now gone eight innings without making a fifty in a Test match. His failure to score even one half-century in a calendar year is a first in his career. This year, he will have one more chance to add significantly to his total.
This year, Pakistan took part in five Test matches, one of which is right now in play. The team’s first red-ball come-across of the year ended in a draw with New Zealand. At the time, Babar was the captain and he scored 24 and 27 runs in two innings.
During a two-match Test series that they won, Pakistan visited Sri Lanka in July 2023. Although Babar got 13 and 24 in the first Test, he continued to have difficulty with the bat. Pakistan batted just once in the second Test, with Babar scoring 39 runs.
Babar did not perform well for his squad during the current Australian tour. He scored runs in the first Test 21 and 14.
