Pat Cummins insisted England’s victory in the third Ashes Test would not shift the momentum of the series, with Australia able to “brush this one off” in the knowledge they still hold a 2-1 advantage with two games to play.
“We’re all plenty used to it, playing cricket – there’s normally a winner and a loser,” Cummins said of dealing with England’s three-wicket win. “We’ve had a wonderful run up until now, winning the first three matches in this tour.” Australia beat India in the World Test Championship final at the Oval before the Ashes began.
He continued: “This is one of those games you can look at and everyone kind of feels like they could have done something that might have contributed to a different result, but we’ve all played enough cricket so we’ll brush this one off.”
After Australia won the first Test by two wickets and the second by 43 runs, this was the third successive game to toy with spectators’ nerves. “It’s not my preference but they’ve been great viewing,” Cummins said. “It’s just tense out there, it’s great cricket.
“I actually really enjoy being out there and feeling you’ve got some kind of control of the situation and you’re in the middle of it. It’s 100 times worse when you’re in the changing room and you wish you could do something about it but you can’t.”
The match leaves Cummins with various selection issues to deal with once the squad has returned from “taking a few days off to recharge and flying to various places”, with Mitchell Marsh hard to leave out at Old Trafford given his impact after replacing the injured Cameron Green, and the opener David Warner increasingly ripe for a rest after two failures with the bat.
However, the decision not to pick Mitchell Starc for the first Test looks unlikely to be repeated after the left-arm paceman took five second-innings wickets as Australia strained to defend 251.
“I thought he was fantastic,” Cummins said. “He was a class act today. He’s really versatile now – you’ve seen him bowl the wobble seam, he can swing the ball, he can use his bouncers, he’s still got that yorker. So he’s just becoming a more and more complete bowler every time he plays and as a captain it’s a luxury to have a left-armer who’s that in control of his skill and pace.”
