Pat Cummins has hailed the Australian Test team for scraping through to win the ICC World Test Championship series against New Zealand and surge to second position in the standings.
Despite the top-order not quite firing, Australia managed to win, with the resilience of the lower middle-order and lower-order coming to the fore in the Christchurch Test, where the team recovered from a precarious 34/4 to chase down 279.
“At times we haven”t played our best cricket, but still found a way to win,” Cummins said in the post-match press conference.
“No doubt a few of them will look back and wish they had scored a few more runs over the last couple of games, but basically everyone in the line-up has won a match this summer.”
The come-from-behind mentality shown during the home summer was reminiscent of the ICC Men”s Cricket World Cup in 2023 according to the Australian captain, where the team recovered from two losses at the beginning to lift the trophy.
In between the challenges faced by the Australian team throughout the summer, there has consistently been someone stepping up. This Monday, it was Alex Carey”s turn to shine.
Carey, who averaged 23.76 in Test matches (before the Christchurch Test) since the beginning of 2023, stepped up with the team in trouble at 80/5.
The southpaw saw the run-chase through, remaining unbeaten on 98 alongside the skipper, who made 32, as Australia continued their long-standing winning streak against their Trans-Tasmanian neighbours.
“I enjoy that challenge, I feel like this group”s been able to get out of situations,” Carey said, adding to what Cummins had to say about the team”s mentality.
“I guess each guy”s had a game where they”ve been able to do that, and so in the last seven games we”ve won six although at times a little bit under pressure. We”ve stayed resilient throughout that.”
