India captain Virat Kohli will not participate in the last three matches of the four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series on the Australia tour. BCCI has granted a paternity leave to Kohli for the birth of his first child, who is expected in January 2021.
He will only play the first match at Adelaide, which is a day-night Test.
Cricket pundits feel Kohli's absence will hurt India's chances to win the Test series in Australia once again. However, Australia pacer Pat Cummins doesn't agree with it and believes Virat not playing the last three Tests won't be the deciding factor.
“To be honest, we haven’t spoken too much about it. I saw the announcement in the media. To be honest, as a captain, obviously, he’ll be missed but the Indian cricket side always finds some incredible batsman, who outside the team, is just waiting for an opportunity, so maybe that new opportunity will be the beginning of someone else’s career,” Cummins said in an interaction with The Hindu.
“It might make a bit of a difference. I am not sure it’s gonna be a deciding factor in the series but to be honest, us players haven’t spoken too much about it,” he added.
Cummins is confident of Australia's chances with a better-looking side this year than the last one which lost to India in 2018.
“We have got a lot to prove. India played really well here a couple of years ago. We as an Aussie cricket team, and as long as I have grown up watching them play, pride ourselves on winning at home, especially Test matches. So, to lose that one, I feel like we have to make amends this summer,” Cummins said.
“If I look back at that series, obviously Smith and Warner (are back) but obviously you’ve got Marnus (Labuschagne) who now is one of the best batters in the world. Hopefully, we’re better equipped than we were a couple of years ago. But India are much the same. They have got the same line-up, same high-quality players, so it’s gonna be a great series,” he added.
Kohli will be available for the limited-overs series which starts from November 26. India and Australia will play the Test series starting on December 17.
(With The Hindu Inputs)
