Cummins denies lack of preparation after Australia’s loss

Australia suffered a rare Test defeat after the Pat Cummins-led side suffered a nine-wicket loss to Bangladesh in the first Test at Darwin’s Marrara Stadium on Sunday.

This was just the Aussies’ second Test defeat to Bangladesh, and their first-ever to the Tigers on home turf.

Australia skipper Pat Cummins was honest in his assessment of his team’s shock defeat, stating that they were completely outplayed by the visitors.

Cummins, though, denied the fact that Australia were underprepared for the Test, but said that there are no room for excuses after such a performance.

“Probably that day one (On where Australia lost the match). I thought our preparation was pretty much spot on. I thought it was excellent. So, yeah, no excuses. They played really well.

“I thought the day one wicket was a little bit early, but obviously got to try and find a way to bat a little bit longer than we did,” Cummins said after the match, during the presentation ceremony.

Australia won the toss and opted to bat first. However, the hosts were bundled out for just 198 on the first day of the Test, with pacer Hasan Mahmud causing most of the damage with figures of 6/55.

Bangladesh responded strongly on the back of a century from Tanzid Hasan Tamim as they went onto post 426 in their first innings.

Barring Cameron Green, a majority of the Australian batters underperformed in the second innings too, as they were all out for 284 on the fourth day of the Test.

“And then, yeah, just couldn’t penetrate with the ball. But yeah, I thought they played really well.

Yeah, the batting, again, didn’t quite capitalise on a few starts,” the New South Wales pacer added.

Bangladesh needed just 57 runs to win with a day and a half remaining, and they did so in 14.2 overs and nine wickets left.

Meanwhile, there has been a lot of scrutiny around the underwhelming performances of players like Marnus Labuschagne and Jake Weatherald.

While Steve Smith top-scored for the Aussies with 71 runs in the first innings, Cameron Green impressed by scoring a century in the second innings.

When asked if there would be changes for the second Test starting from 22 August, Cummins didn’t reveal much.

“Every time there’s a game like this, you always kind of look at your match-ups and you make up with the team for the next one. But, yeah, we only just finished that hoo-up.

Think about it. We’re pretty good at bouncing back, so no doubt the batters and every group will get together and have a good think about this one and where we can improve,” he said.

“I think Bangladesh outplayed us in all facets, really. I thought they were really patient and quite disciplined. And yeah, once we were behind, it was really hard to get back,” the 33-year-old added.

With the ball, Josh Hazlewood was the standout performer with seven wickets across two innings.

This included figures of 6/89 in the first innings. Cummins lauded both Hazlewood and Green for their impressive performances.

“Josh, he hasn’t had a great run for injuries the last couple of years, but he’s one of the hardest workers. And yeah, he just showed his class.

Didn’t have too much in it, you know, scene-wise, still picking up six really important wickets. So he was fantastic,” he said.

“And then Greeny, again, I thought, you know, his tempo this inning showed how good he is.

Yeah, just needed a couple of us to hang around with him, but he was fantastic,” the right-arm pacer stated.