Mitchell Starc: India vs Australia: Pat Cummins rules out major changes, Mitchell Starc likely to play second Test | Cricket News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Australia captain Pat Cummins has ruled out major changes in the playing eleven after the first Test debacle in Nagpur, while disclosing that Mitchell Starc is likely to be available for the second Test against India.
The second match of the four-Test series will be played in Delhi from February 17.
Hosts India steamrolled Australia by an innings and 132 runs inside three days in the series opener on Saturday. The visitors lost all 10 wickets of their second innings in one extended frenetic session on a treacherous track in Nagpur.

Injury marred the world number one Australia in the series as they missed pacemen Starc and Josh Hazlewood as well as all-rounder Cameron Green in the opening Test. But it was their top order which particularly let them down in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy opener.
“Starcy lands today or tomorrow in Delhi. I think Joshy might not be quite ready for Delhi. He’s getting up and running now, he’s pretty close, but I don’t think he’ll be quite ready for Delhi. Greeny’s a bit of a wait and see. Still hoping (he would play), he’s had a couple of good hits out here. He’s bowling pretty good, the next couple of days we’ll assess it,” Cummins told reporters after Saturday’s loss, his second since taking over Test captaincy.
In a match where Rohit Sharma scored a magnificent 120 and all-rounders Axar Patel (84) and Ravindra Jadeja (70) struck fifties in India’s only innings, Marnus Labuschagne’s first innings 49 was the best by an Australian batter.
Australia’s decision to drop an in-form Travis Head, because of his perceived frailties against spin, and pick both Matt Renshaw and Peter Handscomb surprised many.
Cummins, however, is keeping his faith in the current bunch and said not “much is going to change in the next couple of games”.
“We’ve had a really good run the last 12 months. There haven’t been many losses in that change room. I don’t think we need to reinvent the wheel, it’s just tweaking different approaches to how we play and maybe particular methods,” he said.
(With inputs from Reuters)