After going wicket-less in the practice matches, Cummins has picked up three in two tournament-proper matches so far.
Dubai: Australia pace spearhead Pat Cummins on Friday said he is glad that the effort he put into his T20 bowling in the last four-five months is giving him the desired results in the ongoing World Cup, which has been his “main goal” for a while.
The 28-year-old fast bowler sat out of the IPL’s UAE leg for the birth of his first child, a son born just a week before he landed for the global T20 showpiece.
After going wicket-less in the practice matches, Cummins has picked up three in two tournament-proper matches so far. The world’s number one Test bowler is relieved that his hard work of the past few months has paid off.
“Yeah, I guess, yeah, maybe a little bit of it is relief, but this has been on my calendar for the last four or five months as kind of the main goal, so I’ve spent a lot of time working on T20 bowling,” he said ahead of the game against Ashes rivals England on Saturday.
“We had a similar kind of scenario last year where we had a big break and then we flew over to England for those T20s and one dayers.
“This time around I kind of felt like I knew what I had to do before I got over here. But yeah, been really happy with how I’ve been bowling, and yeah, it’s all come together so far,” he added.
Cummins has 40 wickets in 32 T20 Internationals at a fine average of 20.35.
While confident of delivering on the expectations from him, Cummins said leg-spinner Adam Zampa also has a huge role to play if the team is to do well in the event here.
Zampa has already made an impact in the tournament and a bowled game changing spell against Sri Lanka on Thursday. He has four wickets from two games so far.
“Yeah, Adam is huge for us. I think he’s one of the premier spin bowlers in the world in white ball cricket. He’s been fantastic for us for a long time,” he said.
“I think just knowing in this format batters can get away, there can be a big start in the first six overs, but having especially a wrist spinner is just hugely beneficial for us.
“He can take those couple of wickets, keep it tight, and then we can attack from the other end. Yeah, he showed how good he is last night,” added Cummins.
Both England and Australia go into the game unbeaten.
With the Ashes scheduled after the World Cup, both teams would like to go one up on each other. Five players from England’s T20 squad — Jonny Bairstow Jos Buttler, Dawid Malan, Chris Woakes and Mark Wood — are a part of the Ashes group as well.
“Most of the team is quite different to the Test side for England, but it’s always huge. We play England a lot. I think the style of play is quite similar. We like to take the game on.
“They’ve been probably just about the form team the last few years in white ball cricket. We know these guys really well. We know it’s such a big game in the context of making the semifinals, and yeah, always enjoy coming up against England,” said the pacer.
Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stonis went for runs against Sri Lanka but Cummins backed them to bounce back.
“It’s worked really well for us against South Africa, a night like last night, a couple of the bigger overs. But I think the flexibility that structure gives us is just huge. Maxy bowling one in the first six, that means now Starcy can have an extra over through the middle.
“We’re covering a lot of areas with that fifth bowler. We’ve got Maxwell, Stoinis, Marsh, all who can contribute those four overs,” he said.
Aaron Finch and David Warner found form against Sri Lanka but Cummins said it wasn’t a surprise considering they both are proven performers. He also expects Warner to open in the Ashes.
