NAGPUR (Reuters) – Mitchell Starc is likely to be available for the second test against India but captain Pat Cummins has ruled out overhauling the squad following the battering they received in the series opener in Nagpur.
India steamrolled Australia by an innings and 132 runs inside three days in Nagpur where the tourists lost all 10 wickets in one frenetic session on a treacherous track.
World number one Australia missed pacemen Starc and Josh Hazlewood as well as all-rounder Cameron Green through injuries though it was their top order which particularly let them down in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy opener.
“Starcy lands today or tomorrow into Delhi,” Cummins told reporters after Saturday’s loss, his second since taking over test captaincy.
“I think Joshy might not be quite ready for Delhi. He’s getting up and running now, he’s pretty close, but I don’t think he’ll be quite ready for Delhi.
“Greeny’s a bit of a wait and see. Still hoping (he would play), he’s had a couple of good hits out here. He’s bowling pretty good, the next couple of days we’ll assess it.”
In a match where Rohit Sharma made a hundred and all-rounders Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja struck fifties in India’s only innings, Marnus Labuschagne’s first innings 49 was the best by an Australian batter.
Australia’s decision to drop an in-form Travis Head, because of his perceived frailties against spin, and pick both Matt Renshaw and Peter Handscomb surprised many.
Cummins, however, is keeping his faith in the current bunch and said not “much is going to change in the next couple of games”.
“We’ve had a really good run the last 12 months,” he said.
“There hasn’t been many losses in that change room. I don’t think we need to reinvent the wheel, it’s just tweaking different approaches to how we play and maybe particular methods.”
(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; editing by Christian Schmollinger)
