Pat Cummins' truth bomb for Virat Kohli and Indian players ahead of Test cricket showdown

Aussie cricket captain Pat Cummins has claimed India will be feeling the pressure to defend the Border-Gavaskar Trophy following their shock series loss against New Zealand fresh on their minds. Cummins and the Aussie team will be looking to get revenge and retain the trophy having lost to India in 2020 at home.

However, India and Virat Kohli travel to Australia in questionable form having just lost their first series at home in 12 years to New Zealand. Furthermore, reporter Robbert Craddock claimed the Indian team were 'arrogant' to have announced their squad to tour Australia in the middle of the New Zealand series.

And Cummins has now delivered a telling blow to India and claimed Australia are aware of the tourists' vulnerabilities heading away from home after a series defeat. "I think any time a team's under pressure, it's not a bad thing if you're playing against them," he said at his book launch on Tuesday night.

"But they've been out here before and performed well. Our job is to try and keep them quiet, see how we go." While India may be under pressure heading to Australia, Cummins is also seeking a career first against the Indians.

Cummins has never played in a winning series against India during his time in the baggy green. Across Australia's last 16 Test series the only team they have not defeated is India. Australia failed to defeat Indian during 2018-19, when Steve Smith and David Warner were suspended, and again in 2020-21.

And the Aussie captain admits it's a huge series for himself, but the nation with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy the only bi-lateral series Australia do not hold. "It's kind of the one big thing that I want to tick off," Cummins said. "Particularly winning at home. Most Australians, me included, expect us to do well whenever we play at home.

"We've lost the (last) two series against them (in Australia), so this is a big one. We feel like our team's in a really good place, so we've got no reason why we shouldn't perform really well. I just always expect us to do well against whoever we play. But India, particularly, is a big year, big season."

While Australia may not hold a series win against India for a number of years, they haven't been without their success. Australia beat India in the World Test Championship final at the Oval ahead of last year's Ashes series. They then defeated India in the World Cup final at Ahmedabad.

Virat Kohli under pressure heading to Australia

Two of India's best batters in recent years are also facing immense pressure on the tour. Kohli is considered one of the best batters of all-time, but has struggled for runs in recent years. Kohli's tour could decide whether he plays on for his country in red-ball cricket. Kohli has only scored 245 runs across his last 10 innings for India. Against New Zealand he has only scored 88 runs in four innings.

He has only scored two centuries in the last five years and only two fifties in his last 12 innings. His average now sits at 48.31 and his struggles against a left-arm spinner has been called out in recent times.

"It's obviously a recurring pattern where (left-arm) spinners have troubled him, and I think he will go and figure out what he needs to do to come out stronger," Dinesh Karthik said of Kohli's recent troubles. "He is a man who is searching for answers."

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He isn't the only Indian batter facing pressure. Captain Rohit Sharma was a major influence in India's last two victories against Australia. But the right-hander has made six single-digit returns and just one fifty in the last eight test innings.

And speaking this week, cricket reporter Craddock claimed Kohli might struggle against Cummins and co on the tour. "I am just wondering if there is just one last squeeze of the lemon for Kohli in Australia. I don't think there is. I think he has played so much cricket he is a fading force....I reckon his eye is going," he said on SEN Radio.