“There’s going to be some tough calls”: Pat Cummins opens up about selecting the playing 11 for the first test against Pakistan

Pat Cummins admits that there will be some tough calls within the group to select their playing 11 for the first test against Pakistan.

After 24 years of wait, the Australian cricket team has reached Pakistan for a multiformat series. The tour will start with tests, followed by three ODIs and a sole T20I on the tour. Rawalpindi, Lahore, and Karachi will host the tests, whereas Rawalpindi will host all the limited over games.

The Australian team has reached Islamabad, they are currently under isolation. Pat Cummins also has given his first press conference, and he is happy about the security and the bio bubble.

Pat Cummins talks about team selection against Pakistan

The idea of playing in the subcontinent will certainly hamper the team combination of Australians. They are used to playing Nathan Lyon along with three genuine pacers. Cam Green has been playing as the fourth seamer, but the combinations will certainly change here in this series.

Mitchell Swepson has been with the Aussie test team for a long now. However, he has not made his test debut yet for the Aussies. He had a brilliant Shield season with Queensland last year, and he is the favourite to partner Nathan Lyon in the first test of the series. Ashton Agar has also been recalled to the test team, but he has not played a single Shield game this season.

It will be tough for the Aussies to select their pacers as well. Cummins is the captain of the side, whereas he will have to choose his partners wisely. Scott Boland had a terrific Ashes, whereas Josh Hazlewood is also back in the mix. Mitchell Starc has recently won the Aussie cricketer of the year award. Cummins has said that they will have to make some tough calls.

The Aussies have arrived in 🇵🇰 for their first away Test series since mid-2019 and captain Pat Cummins is keen to make sure they bring the same ‘relentless’ style of play they had at home this summer #PAKvAUS pic.twitter.com/GSsS9qQNbV

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) February 27, 2022

“It’s going to be a tough one,” Cummins said.

“Scotty Boland came in and bowled fantastically. We know how good Joshy is, Starcy. Of us four quick bowlers, you can probably own three, so I’ll leave that to the selectors.”

“There’s going to be some tough calls.”

“It’s one of the blessings of having 15-16 guys who have all performed recently and done fantastically well, there’s going to be some unlucky decisions made but that’s professional sport.”

The first test will start from 4 March 2022 in Rawalpindi. For Pakistan, the duo of Hasan Ali and Faheem Ashraf will miss the game due to injuries.