Cricket greats SLAM Pat Cummins for ‘desperate’ use of reviews in the second Test against India

Allan Border and Michael Hussey led a chorus of critics after Pat Cummins burned all three reviews in one of the sessions on a backwards Test Cricket day in Delhi.

Twice in the first hour of day two of the second Test, the Australian captain opted to send a decision up in a bid to remove KL Rahul, only for the DRS to keep the call on the pitch.

Having burned his first two reviews, Cummins then opted not to review a BPN call against Cheteshwar Pujara, who appeared to have been caught up front by Nathan Lyon.

Pujara was not ruled out, but replays showed he would have been ruled out had Cummins chosen to review the call.

Hussey was scathing about Australia’s approach, claiming that their decision to burn their reviews in quick succession smacked of desperation.

Cheteshwar Pujara (right) would have been bowled out for a duck had Australia reviewed the decision after the Indian batsman failed to be bowled out on the pitch.

Former Australia captain Allan Border (left) and Mike Hussey (right) were highly critical of the way Cummins used the revisions at his disposal in the second test.

“They were desperate for early wickets and I think they probably lost a little bit of control there,” he said on Fox Cricket.

‘Maybe the mindset was just to use them […] If we’re wrong, so be it, we’ll move on.

‘It would be nice to have just one in your back pocket in case the howler is there. […] especially if it’s a big wicket, someone like [Virat] Kohli.

Border was even more blunt in his assessment, suggesting that Cummins was the wrong man to oversee the review process.

“You have to take the emotion out of it as much as you can,” he said.

‘Say [to the bowler]: “Go stand there mate, and we’ll chat a bit.”

“The goalkeeper has to have very solid vision otherwise you’re going to get a lot of those [reviews] mistaken.’

Meanwhile, Matthew Hayden noted that Cummins would normally have reviewed the call against Pujara if he hadn’t wasted two reviews earlier in the innings.

“It would have been a hopeful review that they’ve done twice already,” said the former Australian opener.

It’s a matter of trust, isn’t it, the review process. [He’s] taken a couple before [and] he wasted them.

“If they hadn’t taken those reviews earlier, they surely would have gone up for that.”

There was further controversy at 24.4 overs, as Cummins used his third review after Shreyas Iyer survived an appeal from Todd Murphy’s bowling.

Mark Waugh claimed Todd Murphy (right) ‘ripped off’ Cummins into using a hotfix

Australia used their third review after Shreyas Iyer survived an appeal of Murphy’s bowling, but the Indian batsman was given a reprieve by DRS and UltraEdge.

Replays and UltraEdge indicated that Iyer missed the ball, which bounced to the short leg of his bag, with the Indian batsman surviving a BPN appeal after the DRS showed the ball had gone over the line.

Speaking about the comments, Mark Waugh said Murphy, who made his test debut at Nagpur last week, had “tricked” Cummins into using a revision.

‘It just didn’t look right [the catch appeal] – there were a couple of players around the bat who were excited and a couple who weren’t,” said the former Australian national coach.

“I think Todd Murphy has ripped off Pat Cummins there.”

Lyon spared Cummins some blushes, taking four wickets in the first session to reduce India to 4-87 at lunch. The hosts dug in after the restart and went to tea at 7-179, with Axar Patel and Ravi Ashwin launching a brilliant counter-attack to frustrate the Australian bowlers.