IPL 2022: Aakash Chopra lauds Pat Cummins' fiery spell in KKR-MI clash

Aakash Chopra has pointed out that Pat Cummins showed his worth to the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) management after being benched for the last few matches of IPL 2022.

Cummins returned figures of 3/22 in his four overs as KKR bowled out the Mumbai Indians (MI) for 113 runs in Monday's (May 9) Indian Premier League encounter. It helped Shreyas Iyer's side register a 52-run win and kept alive their slim hopes of making it through to the IPL 2022 playoffs.

While lauding Cummins' spell in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra highlighted that the Australian Test skipper was probably peeved about being left out of KKR's playing XI. He elaborated:

"I am Australia's captain and I remain the No. 1 Test bowler continuously and you don't even feel me worthy enough of playing in your XI although your team has lost four-five consecutive matches. I think it hurt him slightly."

The former KKR player pointed out that Pat Cummins was not part of the franchise's initial XI due to quarantine-related restrictions. Chopra observed:

"Pat was sitting out for a long time. It seemed he was angry, was playing with a feeling of rancor. And here he got an opportunity again, he didn't play at the start because he came from Pakistan and was not available due to the quarantine rules."

Chopra added that Cummins lost his place in KKR's side due to a couple of expensive spells even though he had played an explosive knock in their previous match against MI. He said:

"But then when he played, he played well, won the match against Mumbai by scoring 50 runs off 14 balls and after that, he was dropped. He was hit in two matches and he was dropped. After that, he was not played."

Pat Cummins was dropped as he conceded 190 runs in four matches, going at 12 runs per over. However, with Aaron Finch failing to deliver at the top of the order with the bat, he was recalled into the KKR playing XI as the fourth overseas player at the expense of the Australian limited-overs skipper.

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"Scaring and threatening the batters" - Aakash Chopra on Pat Cummins picking up his wickets with bouncers

Pat Cummins got all his three wickets with short-pitched deliveries [P/C: iplt20.com]

Aakash Chopra concluded by highlighting that Cummins took all his wickets by threatening the opposition batters, similar to what Jasprit Bumrah did during the KKR innings.

"He (Cummins) took three wickets. They were very important wickets, he dismissed Ishan Kishan - the only batter to score a half-century, Murugan Ashwin and Daniel Sams, by bowling the bouncers, by scaring and threatening the batters, we saw Jasprit Bumrah doing that in the first innings and Pat Cummins in the second."

Cummins first had Ishan Kishan caught by Rinku Singh at deep backward square leg off a bouncer. Daniel Sams and Murugan Ashwin also fell prey to the Aussie pacer's short-pitched deliveries in the same over.