Not Virat Kohli Or Rohit Sharma, Pat Cummins Names This Team India Legend as Toughest Opponent to Bowl At | Check Full List

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Pat Cummins was asked to name the toughest opponents he has faced from different nations. The Australian ODI and Test captain named different players from around the world, but all attention was on his answer for the India part of the question. Given the amount of cricket Australia has played against the Asian nation, Cummins has had a few battles with some of the best players, including the likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, across formats. However, when it came to picking the toughest opponent, the right-arm pacer picked Cheteshwar Pujara.

Pat Cummins Picks Cheteshwar Pujara as the Toughest Indian Opponent

Pujara played an instrumental role in India winning the Border-Gavaskar Trophy during the 2018/19 and 2020/21 seasons on Australian shores. It remains the first time an Asian country has won a Test series in Australia. Thanks to Pujara’s resilience, India won the iconic four-match Test series twice in a row. Cummins described Pujara as pretty hard to get out.

When asked about his toughest opponent from India, Cummins said, “I’m going to say, Pujara. Really hard to get out. Just like death by a thousand papercuts, happy to face 100 dot balls if he wanted to. Just not going to give you any chance.”

It is not just Cummins who believes that Pujara was tough to bowl to. The former Indian batter had an incredible run of scores against the Aussies in the matches where the right-arm pacer played. In 23 innings against Australia where Cummins bowled, Pujara scored almost 1,100 runs at an average of 49.95.

Pujara’s overall average against Australia was 49.38, much better than his career average of 43.6. More than his runs, it was his ability to play out tough spells that irritated the opponent teams, especially fast bowlers.

Pat Cummins Names Toughest Opponents From Around the World

Apart from India, arguably Australia’s biggest opponent is England. From England, Cummins picked Alastair Cook as the toughest. He named Tillakaratne Dilshan from Sri Lanka, AB de Villiers from South Africa, Brendon McCullum from New Zealand, and Chris Gayle from the West Indies. However, his answer to Pakistan remained unique, as he named spinner Saeed Ajmal as the toughest opponent, as opposed to batters from other nations.

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Pragun Mehrotra

Pragun is a passionate cricket follower and writer who deeply loves the game. Having completed his education with a degree in Journalism and Mass Communication, he has an experience of almost two years in diverse fields. He is known for his statistical and analytical articles. Pragun tries to bring life to his articles by adding a layer of enthusiasm from the perspective of a hardcore fan. Apart from writing cricket articles, he sometimes appears on YouTube videos on a friend’s podcast.

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