Australia vs Pakistan 2019: Pat Cummins rested ahead of final T20I

Australia pacer Pat Cummins has been rested from the third and final T20I against Pakistan to get charged up and return ahead of the Test series starting from November 21st. The decision was taken by the team management keeping in mind the importance of each Test under the ICC World Test Championship.

Australia went into the series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan with a full throttle pace battery, with one eye on the next year’s ICC World T20 at home. As per the reports of Sydney Morning Herald, Pat Cummins will join Test team-mates Nathan Lyon, David Warner, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchel Starc in the ongoing Sheffield Shield. Cummins will join New South Wales‘ squad to play against Western Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Speaking on the topic, head coach Justin Langer clarified that there weren’t any injury concerns and wanted to give the pacer some recovery time. Cummins, who has been troubled by injury at the start of his career, played five consecutive T20I matches which was the longest stretch of games he had played in the format. Langer said,

"It's a little bit of recovery and preparing for the Test match… We've got so much cricket on and he plays a lot of it so we've got the opportunity for him not to take the long flight to Perth.”

Langer stressed on the fact that players needed adequate rest in the cramped international schedule but there needed to be proper balance of giving them chances as well as resting them. He said,

"In the past we have used these opportunities to rest some of those guys… But we need to get better at it, it's something that is a priority for Australian cricket. So therefore you want to play your best players as often as you can.“

The head coach sounded extremely confident and pleased with the way his team was shaping up ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup at home next year. Langer felt that they were extremely lucky to be playing with such incredible depth in their squad in theT20 format. He said:

"We're playing a really good defensive game. In T20 I've thought for seven or eight years that how you're bowling unit plays and how you field is really important. We're working to build all our bowling stocks so they are able to do those jobs for us. We're really lucky, we've got great depth of squad."

Cummins was the top-wicket taker in the recently concluded T20I series against Sri Lanka with six wickets while he managed only one wicket in two games against Pakistan. The third and final T20I will be played on November 8th at the Optus Stadium in Perth.

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