India is Pat Cummins' 1st real test as captain, rest has been plain sailing: Allan Border

Former Australia cricketer Allan Border has offered a piece of advice to Pat Cummins after his team's disastrous performance in the first two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India. Border believes that Cummins grossly under-bowled himself during the second Test match in Delhi last week. Border said that Cummins could have bowled two or three overs during India's first innings in the match when Australia had the Rohit Sharma-led side on the ropes.

'Pat grossly under-bowled himself'

Australia reduced India to 139 for 7 at one point in their first innings but a 114-run partnership between Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel helped the home side recover and reach a run short of the visitors' first-innings score. Border believes that Cummins should have brought himself into the attack when India were struggling in their first innings but he also acknowledged that leading the team as a fast bowler in the sub-continent can be one of the toughest things. 

"To me, the fast bowler, it's always fraught with danger. I thought Pat grossly under-bowled himself in that Test match," Border was quoted as saying to SEN.

"There were opportunities when things were starting to go stray, particularly in the Indian first innings when we had them on the ropes and they formed a good partnership, a couple of blasts from him running in and bowling some short stuff for two or three overs," he added. 

"There are other guys out on the field I suppose who could go to the captain and say, 'mate, why don't you have a bowl'?" Border said.

"But I just thought this is Pat's first real test as a captain, the rest has been plain sailing, you go to the sub-continent, and all of a sudden you get tested out in all sorts of areas. He's worried about lots of different things, he forgot about himself bowling I think. That's what can happen in those situations when your premier fast bowler is your captain," he added.

"There is a lot going on, even if you're the captain in those situations and you're a batter. People don't really appreciate how tough it is, it's a really different place to play the game in the sub-continent," Border concluded.

Cummins has flown back to Australia due to some family issues. He is expected to return to India before the start of the third Test match in Indore. 

Image: AP