Player Ratings<\/a><\/p>\nThe Australians selected a squad of 13 for the Bangladesh series, with Josh Inglis the reserve batter and Scott Boland the other bowler, but a broader group of 19 players trained in Brisbane leading into the first Test of the 2026\/2027 season. <\/p>\n
Cummins said the batting group will work with head coach Andrew McDonald and batting assistant Michael Di Venuto leading into the Mackay Test as Australia seeks to ensure it does not suffer a series loss for the first time in four years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s always quite individual. Everyone goes about it slightly differently, so coaches will work with each player individually,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut … I think it\u2019s pretty clear it\u2019s not quite functioning as well as we\u2019d like as a group. So I\u2019m sure the batters will get together and talk about it, maybe review some footage, review methods, their approaches to how they were this week. We need to make some changes to our style. We\u2019ve got a week or so (until Mackay) and we had better do it pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jake Weatherald is under pressure to hold his spot after two failures, including a second innings duck, when returning home to Darwin for the Test. (Photo by William WEST \/ AFP)Source: AFP<\/p>\n
As his Bangladeshi counterpart Najmal Hossain Shanto was exchanging FaceTime calls with the nation\u2019s Prime Minister, Cummins was quizzed across multiple outlets as to whether there would be any changes in the Australian team for Mackay.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not ideal. We were not anywhere near our best this week, across both areas really,\u201d he told SEN in a separate interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all, you acknowledge we were nowhere near our best and we have got to get better. We have to go up another level.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to bounce back in less than a week, so everyone has areas that they can improve. What is important is our next action and how we make those changes.\u201d<\/p>\n
AUS vs BAN: Test 1, Day Four Highlights | 15:42<\/p>\n
Cummins has been criticised for the decision to bat first after winning the toss, with Bangladesh\u2019s captain Shanto saying the Tigers would have bowled first if given the choice. <\/p>\n
But the Aussie captain said he would \u201cstill do it again\u201d in a pointed message as to where he feels the blame for the loss lies, noting the pitch was becoming harder to bat on during the fourth day as Bangladesh spinner Mehidy Hasan Maraz ran amok.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are always weighing up the first innings versus the fourth innings and when you think it will be harder to bat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought with a bit of grass, it might be hard for the first hour, but it felt like a pretty good batting track, whereas it is hard to know what day four and five are going to do, but you feel like it might crack up and start to spin, and that is how it played out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Irrespective of the call, the Australian skipper said that an under-fire top order needed to find a way to bat longer, both to score runs but also to give the ageing attack time to recuperate, something that has also been an issue in previous summers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey (Bangladesh) played really well. I thought the day one wicket, (there was) a little bit (in it) early but obviously (we\u2019ve) got to try and find a way to bat a little bit longer than we did, and then just couldn\u2019t penetrate with the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey outplayed us in all facets. I thought they were really patient and quite disciplined. Once we were behind, it was really hard to get back.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou would hope as a team, you could bat longer than however long we batted for the Test – just over 100 overs.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were also queries as to whether Australia had prepared properly for the Test, with the squad coming together for match simulation leading in Brisbane as Bangladesh played – and was humbled – buy a Cricket Australia XI in Darwin.<\/p>\n
But he said several players had spent weeks preparing in Brisbane leading into the Test and described the lead-in as \u201cbang on\u201d even if the result was clearly very far from that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought our preparation was really excellent,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe spent six weeks or so up in Brisbane. We thought we pretty much got that bang on. So it\u2019s hard to put your finger on. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just felt like we just didn\u2019t get off to a great start, and kind of once you behind on a pretty good wicket against a pretty good side, it was kind of really hard to wrestle the momentum back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bangladesh had much to celebrate after claiming their first ever Test win on Australian soil by nine wickets in Darwin. (Photo by Robert Cianflone\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Aside from Green, who batted superbly in the second innings to put rest to any questions surrounding his spot, Cummins praised fellow fast bowler Josh Hazlewood, who became the ninth Australian to pass 300 Test wickets during the match.<\/p>\n
\u201cJosh, he hasn\u2019t had a great run for injuries the last couple of years, but he\u2019s one of the hardest workers and just showed his class on a wicket that didn\u2019t have too much in it seam-wise, still picking up six really important wickets,\u201d Cummins said. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo he was fantastic. Then Greeny, I thought his tempo this innings showed how good he is. Just needed a couple of us to hang around with him, but he was fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cam Green silences critics with 100 | 01:02<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian captain Pat Cummins said it is clear the nation\u2019s malfunctioning top order is not performing as required…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44,85],"class_list":["post-858086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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