Cardiff: Pat Cummins says his belated focus on a precise run-up, and ending his haphazard approach to the wicket, have helped him make what is an impressive start to the limited-overs series against England.
The 22-year-old removed both of England's openers, Alex Hales and Jason Roy, in his opening over in Monday's Twenty20 in Cardiff. Hales, in particular, looked to be no match for Cummins, who kept his pace about 145km/h for that rapid opening over.
"It's not often you bowl three full tosses and they don't get hit for boundaries, so that was pleasing," he said.
Cummins said being part of the Ashes squad had helped, even though he did not play a Test, because it allowed him to work on the technicalities of his run-up.
"I've felt good for a while. I think the past couple of months has given me an opportunity to work on probably my run-up more than anything. That's probably the biggest difference. It feels smooth and, fortunately, it feels like it's coming out at a pretty good clip," he said.
Part of that has been joining his teammates in formally measuring and marking his run-up, which is now 20.2 metres, before bowling.
"I used to step it out. Some games, from one end it'd be a metre in front of someone and down the other end it would be a metre behind. Now I've got the ruler and measuring tape out it's a bit more consistent," he said. "I'm trying to get as many things consistent [as possible], so hopefully by the time I release the ball I don't have to worry about all those things that came before and it's pretty similar every ball."
Cummins said Australia's one-dayer in Ireland last week and the Twenty20 against England had been good preparation for the five-match one-day series, which begins on Friday in Southampton. The series will be played under the new rules allowing an additional outfielder, which was brought in by the ICC to help bowlers strike back against batsmen.
"The main chat was that the last 10 overs pretty much turns into the last 10 overs of a Twenty20 match now you can have five out. Similar plans, but a little more room for error. You've probably got a couple more options as a bowler, and the batsman has to be pretty smart [to counteract that]," he said. "If you've got a couple of set batsmen, or batsmen swinging, at the end of T20s they still score upwards of 10 an over. I don't think too much will change in 50 overs."
