Australia skipper Pat Cummins keen to solve ‘puzzle’ of ODI tactics

• Pat Cummins is still trying to figure out ODI tactics after 12 years.
• ODIs are the most physically taxing format of cricket.
• Australia needs to find a balance between inventiveness and consistency in ODI bowling.

Twelve years after he made his ODI debut, Pat Cummins is still keen to solve the puzzle of the tactics involved in organizing a spell. That might seem like an odd conclusion to draw from an interview with an Australian captain under pressure following his team’s loss to India and their difficulties against spin, but it’s a tiny sample of a larger topic we will be discussing throughout the tournament: the format’s future.

We have a good example in Cummins, so we don’t even need to consider the arguments to eliminate bilateral ODIs and limit them to World Cups only. Between the previous World Cup and this one, he had only played 19 matches; he has only played three this year and just 78 in the previous twelve years, including Australia’s World Cup opener loss to India. As a result, it has taken him longer than it might have otherwise to feel comfortable with his tactical approach to one-day internationals.

“Early in my career, I found it a hard balance between Test cricket and T20, and I was getting too funky,” Cummins said at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow, the day before Australia prepared to play South Africa. “With one-day cricket, your roles can be very different – from being an opening bowler with a ball that swings, to coming on first change and maybe bowling cross-seamers where you are trying to defend and get your wickets through pressure. It’s a different kind of challenge to the other formats.”

Additionally, Cummins referred to it as “the most physically taxing” of the three forms since, as the ICC tagline makes clear, it takes a single day. One entire day. An ODI will have more time on the field and more kilometers ran in the legs than either of the other game formats, even though the length of a Test and the intensity of a T20 cannot be equaled.

“The biggest challenge is that you’ve got ten overs [to bowl]. It’s quite a physical format,” Cummins said of ODIs. “I find it the most physically taxing if you are doing two or three games in a week. We are doing 15k (kilometres) in a 50-over match.”

In one-day cricket, too, there’s the trade-off to be made between inventiveness and consistency, where a modicum of all-out attack mixed with patience is needed.

“In T20, if you bowl one really good over that can be match-winning. But in one-day cricket, it’s not normally the case,” Cummins said. “And it’s rare that conditions are in the bowlers’ favour, which is fine. It’s just a challenge you’ve got to try and deal with. It’s tough but I do enjoy it.”

On Thursday, when he believes there will be pace and bounce available on a surface that is still somewhat mysterious, Cummins anticipates that at least one of those things will get easier. There have only been four One-Day Internationals (ODIs) at Ekana Stadium thus far, with 249 being the highest score achieved batting first in a full 50-over innings. One ODI was held in October of last year, however, the pitches have since been dug up and resurfaced. Three of those ODIs took place in 2019.

In addition, Cummins believes that his physical condition is “in as good a place as it’s ever been” and that he is “almost be prepared for anything,” possibly even “death bowling.” He also anticipates that, despite his recent focus on unorthodoxy, he could need to attempt “to create a wicket out of nothing” against a strong South Africa lineup.

That doesn’t lessen his inexperience as ODI captain—he has only participated in five of Australia’s fifteen ODIs since being elected captain in October of last year—or the issues the middle overs pose for the team. They went from being 110 for 2 in the 28th over to 199 all out at that point, which is where they lost the match against India.

Similar to Cummins’ own conclusions regarding bowling, the batting group has been discussing this under the direction of Andy Flower, who has also served as coach of the Lucknow Super Giants, an IPL side whose home ground is the Ekana Stadium. It’s a balance between the formats they’re pursuing.

“It’s no secret that the [middle-overs] period of the game seems to be the most important in one-day cricket,” Cummins said. “How do we create partnerships? If they’re bowling well, how do we shift the pressure back on to their bowlers, and try and force their hand to make some changes? It’s a real delicate balance in one-day cricket of not taking huge risks, but it’s not like Test cricket where you can wait it out. You have to keep the run rate ticking over.”

The middle overs are also seen as the moment that ODI cricket may fall from grace, unless the story that is told in that section is compelling but subtle. As Cummins alluded to, those overs are the Goldilocks of the game, where players must find the sweet spot in terms of quantity and quality of work. For Australia, that means figuring out how much is just perfect.

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