IND vs AUS 2022-23: 'It is going to be the acid test for Pat Cummins and co' - Allan Border

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Legendary Australian Allan Border is enormously impressed with Pat Cummins' leadership but communicated that the forthcoming four-Test series in India would be his genuine "acid test and the final frontier". Australia will start the marquee Test series in Nagpur from February 9, eyeing its maiden series win in India in 19 years.

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"That is going to be the acid test for him and the team," Border told ABC Sport. Having been promoted to the role after wicketkeeper Tim Paine's premature resignation ahead of Ashes 2021, the Aussie pacer has been on a golden run. He started his captaincy stint by triumphing in the Ashes 4-0, followed by conquests versus Pakistan, Windies and South Africa. Australia also drew Sri Lanka 1-2 away from home last year.

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The outcomes signified that Australia is the favourite to make it to its maiden ICC World Test Championship final. The India series will be its last in the WTC calendar before it takes on England in the Ashes, intending to win on opposition soil for the first time since 2001.

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"The next 12 months is the real test for that side and Pat's captaincy, particularly because India is just about the last frontier for the Australian cricket team. We haven't won there very often. It's a hard place to play and a hard place to win, and England is the same," the 67-year-old Border articulated.

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The former Australian skipper originally enunciated that he was worried about Cummins leading the Test side but has guaranteed that it hardly affected his bowling. "I was not as keen to see a fast bowler [appointed captain], not necessarily the individual but more just the fact that he's our number-one fast bowler. But he's proved so many people wrong, and he's handled that so well," Border said.

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"The make-up of the team has helped, where he's [Cummins] got quite a few senior players that he can bounce things off, and they can sort of take over to a certain degree when he's got the ball in his hand when he's bowling. I take my hat off to him. He's done extremely well. They look like a happy side. They're playing excellent cricket, and that's all you can do as captain," concluded Border.

(With inputs from PTI)