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From his childhood to early teens, Pat Cummins witnessed Australia achieve a hat-trick of World Cup victories. In his early youth, he tasted the essence of being a World Champion as a part of the class of 2015.
Now, at the age of 30, Cummins aspires to feel the incredible sensation of leading an exceptional group of teammates to an unprecedented sixth World Cup title, triumphing over a formidable Indian team.
"It would be huge. We were all kids not too long ago, watching some of those great teams win the 99, 2003, 2007 World Cups. That's the opportunity ahead of us tomorrow, which is really exciting. To be captain would be an absolute privilege to lift the trophy with these great bunch of blokes," Cummins expressed his aspirations on the eve of the mega-final.
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The Australian captain thinks that a tournament held once every four years will undoubtedly be a career highlight for him.
"It would be awesome and in terms of the pinnacle, I think it is right up there. It's got the longest history of a world event where all the teams compete. You only get a shot at it every four years”, he added.
"So even if you have a long career, you might only play in two of these events. 2015 is still a career highlight for me, so I think tomorrow if we win, we might pip it." Having won the World Test Championship followed by the Ashes, it has been an awesome year for Australian cricket and the 50-over World Cup will be the icing on the cake.”
Cummins finds it advantageous to have a squad with at least 12 players who have experience winning either a 50-over or a T20 World Cup, as it positions the team well to handle the pressures of significant occasions.
"I think it's going to be an even match. The good thing is we have got six or seven guys that won it in 2015 so we know that feeling. Even more of the guys that were there in the T20 World Cup, different format, but pretty much everyone”, he continued.
"Everyone deals with it slightly differently. You see Davey [Warner] probably dancing and winning the crowd over other guys just staying in their own bubble – yeah it should be good." Having beaten India in an ODI series in March, Cummins is confident of his team's chances in the final but did term Mohammed Shami as India's stand-out performer.
"I mean they're all pretty well-rounded in all departments. You know the one guy that didn't play at the start of the tournament, who's done really well is obviously Shami. He is a class bowler to right and left-armer, so yeah, he's going to be a big one." Even Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja are going to be pretty tough to face in middle-overs.
"They've got five guys who bowl 10 overs pretty much every match. I think their spinners have done well through the middle overs, Kuldeep and Jadeja, so they're going to be a tough proposition like they always are. But you know, they've won every game, so they've been very impressive”, the Aussie captain concluded.
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