Opportunity to strike psychological blow: Cummins on clash vs England

Dubai, Oct 29 (IANS) Australian pace bowler Pat Cummins has said that the ICC T20 World Cup 'Super 12' clash against England on Saturday could be termed as an opportunity to strike a psychological blow ahead of the gruelling Ashes series, but added that "being different formats" he wouldn't want to read too much into it.

England will tour Australia for the five-Test Ashes series beginning on December 8 at The Gabba, and the clash between the cricketing giants in the T20 World Cup is being seen as a preview to the Ashes showdown.

Asked if it is possible to strike any sort of psychological blow ahead of the Ashes series, Cummins said on the eve of the 'Super 12' game that, "I mean, perhaps, but as I said, I think there's only a couple of players (here) that will (play the Ashes) -- the majority of the side are mainly white-ball players (here). Yeah, maybe one or two players, but different format. I wouldn't read into it too much.

"Most of the (England) team is quite different to the Test side, but it's always huge (to play England). We play England a lot. I think the style of play is quite similar. We like to take the game on. They've been probably just about the form team the last few years in white-ball cricket," said Cummins, adding that, "it would be a huge game".

"As you say, there are a few players that will be coming out this summer from this side, so it would be great to get one (win) on the board against them early," the pace bowler said about the World Cup game.

Cummins was also all praise for opener David Warner who smashed a half-century to guide his team to a seven-wicket win against Sri Lanka in Dubai on Thursday. Warner had been short of runs until the game against the former World T20 champions and Cummins said that the partnership between Warner and Aaron Finch made things look easy.

"David is a huge player for us. For the last decade he's been huge for Australian cricket. I think, as well, opening the batting, that's where you can really set up the innings. You saw yesterday the way him and Finchy took the game on. It makes those kinds of 150 targets either tough to get or you feel like you're well ahead of the run rate straight away.

"He (Warner) is fantastic. He's also another who is a big-game player. He likes to take on the big teams. I'm sure tomorrow (October 30) you'll see him puffing his chest out, and he's someone that our whole team absolutely loves playing alongside. We all go with him and back him up, and yeah, fantastic to see him backing runs. He's such a good player. We always knew that they weren't far away.

"I think like all the great players, yeah, there's huge expectations that he puts on himself, so he's been around enough to know that runs aren't too far away. It's frustrating, but yeah, every player that's been around for a decade kind of goes through those patches. He's been fantastic around the group. The last couple of weeks he's been great. Yeah, he's his own harshest critic."