Wry smile:Pat Cummins is dismissed on the final day at Galle.Credit:Getty Images
As far as individual players were concerned,Cameron Green and Mitchell Swepson showed strong signs of improvement. Usman Khawaja,Marnus Labuschagne,Steve Smith,Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon performed more or less to expectations. David Warner,Travis Head,and Alex Carey have provided more questions than answers.
Thinking in terms of selecting players for the conditions at hand,Cummins said the team had already moved in that direction through the balance of the bowling attack,adding that Glenn Maxwell’s inclusion may be a step further that can be taken.
“You see that with the bowlers,someone like Joshy Hazlewood sitting on the bench,” he said. “Glenn Maxwell was a conversation around his batting for this game,so absolutely. The challenge with playing in Asia as well is unless you give people a go,you don’t know how someone like a Greeny can come out and show he’s well up to the task.
“Others might take a bit longer. So I think it’s striking that balance. Even guys who didn’t do as well as they’d have hoped,it’s two more Test matches under their belt that they’ll learn from.”
David Warner head bask to the lockers on day four of the second Test in Galle.Credit:Getty Images
As a leader,Cummins gained enormous experience in terms of dealing with spin bowlers. He described how the vast differences in conditions between south Asia and Australia will mean a detailed review of the current tour and a “banking” of that knowledge. Focus will then turn to the challenges of the World Cup and home Tests against West Indies and South Africa,before dusting off the notes for India.
“We’ll review this series,try to put away lots of notes and ideas,then bank that,put that to one side and work towards the home summer,” he said.
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“In Australia most likely you only play one spinner,so in the background you’re trying to prepare a couple of other guys so they get the chance over in India.
“The last two tours we’ve learned a heap,we’ve come a long way in how we’ve played.
“[We’ll] try to park that to one side and try to re-remember it in six months.”
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