Cummins wants to intimidate the English

Cricket365
October 12, 2017

Australia fast bowler Pat Cummins has outlined his intentions to bowl aggressively in a bid to help his team reclaim the Ashes from Joe Root’s England.

Cummins intends to target the ‘head of the snake’ so to speak by going after Root and opener Alastair Cook.

Speaking from Sydney where he had joined up with his New South Wales teammates having returned from India Cummins said: “We’re lucky there’s a few of us who are all pretty tall and get a bit of bounce with a bit of pace.

“I’d love to play that [intimidation] role, hopefully the wickets have a bit of pace and bounce in them, getting the adrenaline up and running in and trying to bowl quick.

“No one really likes it if you’ve got real pace and real accuracy. Especially those kinds of guys, they play on slower wickets where there’s not as much bounce.

“So over here and in South Africa as well it’s one of our biggest strengths, as batsmen we grow up on these wickets and as bowlers, getting bounce has always been really important.

“So I think it’s trying to make it as different to their home conditions as possible, bouncy fast wickets and short balls are definitely that.”

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The first Ashes Test will, if everything goes according to plan, be Cummins first Test on home soil fully six years after his international debut in South Africa.

He said: “Just playing a Test match in Australia will be a pretty weird feeling, I’ve played five now but none at home which is obviously what you grow up watching, so it’ll be great to be part of an Ashes series, it’ll be pretty amazing. I was over there a couple of years ago in England, running drinks, so the prospect of playing in front of a home crowd, I can’t wait.”

Cummins feels that sledging is only part of the aggression Australia will show against England.

The quick reminisced on the previous Ashes campaign where Mitchell Johnson tore through England and said he would look to replicate that.

He went on: “That series, one of the most exciting in recent times where fast bowling has really excited world cricket, and as a fast bowler I was super pumped to watch Jono [Johnson] and how he kept the whole morale of the side up at home in Australia against the Poms.

“That just shows the importance of having a really quick bowler and hopefully one of us three or four guys can do a similar job.

“I think we all show our aggression differently, you probably tailor it towards which batsman you’re bowling to. That was one of the things along with the 150kph bouncers that really intimidated them, not just bowling. Hopefully that’s not our only tool – I’m not quite quick-witted enough to come up with too many sledges, but hopefully we can show our aggression in other ways.

“Joe Root’s probably their most in-form batsman so I think he’ll be the prize wicket along with Alastair Cook, either of those two will be prime wickets.”