Allan Border not impressed with Australian team selection for the tour of India

Australia is all set to tour India for a grueling 4-Test series in February-March this year and the selectors decided to go against the traditional approach of playing to their strength and have picked a spin-heavy bowling attack for the tour which comprises of four specialists and one part-time spinner. But former Australian skipper Allan Border feels they should’ve picked an extra pacer and that should have been Pat Cummins.

Cummins the 23 years old right-arm pacer made his Test debut as an 18-year-old played just that Test and has been struggling with injuries since then. He and has just played just 8 first-class matches all this while. “I personally would have taken a gamble on another paceman, probably Pat Cummins. I think he is ready to go. I am not sure why they are holding him back so much. Obviously they know, the inner sanctum,” Border said on SEN on Friday.

H e doesn’t coincide with this new approach of the team management and said if he was in their place would’ve certainly added more firepower to the attack that consists of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Jackson Bird. “I don’t understand it, but it is the new thinking. I would have been very tempted to have that firepower bowling option.

“The way I look at it, if you use Pat Cummins properly, you probably only have to bowl 16 to 18 overs in a day. You just do it in four short bursts and you just let him rip. To me, if I am a batsman, I know who I would prefer to face, even on a turning track.

Also read- Kevin Pietersen is not quite happy with CA’s management of the BBL

“He is guy that could probably get some reverse swing as well which would be really key to doing really well over there – the fast blokes when the ball gets older and gets torn up a bit.” Border said.

The four spinners selected for the tour of India are-  Nathan Lyon, Steve O’Keefe, Ashton Agar and uncapped Mitch Swepson. Swepson earned a call-up ahead of leg-spinner Adam Zampa who was the leading wicket-taker in ODIs in 2016 on the back of his impressive run in the Big Bash League. But that doesn’t convince the former skipper who thinks it isn’t a really good idea to think of outspinning India in their backyard. “I am not sure if we are going to beat them [India] with just spin options,” Border said.

“Traditionally, the off-spinners have done pretty well there. I think back to Greg Matthews in the tied Test [in 1986] and he was phenomenal. Jason Krejza got 12 wickets in a Test match [2008]. The offies have done OK, but you have got to bowl well and have that mindset – sometimes we over-attack. We have got to take a deep breath and play a bit more of a defensive game, at times.

The real test of the spinners is on turning tracks where the ball is moving off the surface the need to be patient and persist with bowling consistent lines without getting carried away is a key to be able to get 20 wickets. “They [India] have got a phenomenally good batting line-up. To get out 20 wickets to win games, we are going to have to show a lot more patience than we normally do.”

As a captain Border didn’t win a Test match in the subcontinent and the Australian teams have traditionally struggled to do well in India and Pakistan. “I went to India and Pakistan, I don’t know how many games I played in India, the subcontinent, and never won a [Test]. This has been going on for 40 years, this type of problem. It’s nothing new,” Border said.

He thinks hunting in a pack is the right approach for the bowlers. “We have got to find a way. Hopefully, we have got the group together that can collectively hunt as a pack,” Border said.

“You can’t just go off individual performances here and there. You have to really hunt as a pack in India. Fingers crossed they find their form at the right time.”