Pat Cummins Leaks Australia's Playing 11 vs South Africa? Australia Captain Provides Massive Update

Australian skipper Pat Cummins has given an indication that he will be waiting until the toss on Thursday before he unveils the playing XI of Australia that will be taking on South Africa in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 semi-finals at the Eden Gardens.

The five-time World Cup champions had a shallow start after two back-to-back defeats but since then the Aussies have won seven straight matches in this year’s World Cup. They would have to find a way to include Glenn Maxwell in their final XI that will take on the Proteas after the star all-rounder had to miss the final league match against Bangladesh.

Marcus Stoinis is likely to miss out on the playing XI to make way for Glenn Maxwell. However, Australia might want his overs and instead of him, the Aussies might omit specialist batter Marnus Labuschagne in order to make way for the double-centurion hero against Afghanistan.

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While the Australian skipper has suggested that he had already made up his mind about the Playing XI that will tackle the Proteas, Pat Cummins has said that he was still juggling between including an extra all-rounder or an additional batter in his final XI.

“Stoin (Marcus Stoinis) at No.7 gives you valuable overs, but then also is a really aggressive finisher to the innings so you’re weighing that up against you know maybe a middle order batter if you think the bowling might not come into it as much and maybe the runs are to be had through the middle overs rather than blasting out at the end,” Cummins mused on Wednesday.

“They are things we’ve got to weigh up. I don’t think there’s a wrong or right answer. We’ve got a class squad of people here that feel like we can step in at any time so yeah, we’ll work through that.”

Pat Cummins Recalls The Defeat Australia Suffered Against South Africa In League Stage

South Africa thrashed Australia by a huge margin of 134 runs when the two sides met during the league stage of the World Cup in Lucknow. However, Cummins believes that not much can be taken from that humiliating defeat as his team is playing with much more confidence now than earlier in the tournament.

The Aussies have since registered seven victories on the trot before Thursday’s thrilling semi-final and skipper Pat Cummins thinks that his squad is well-placed to defeat South Africa and go on and claim a sixth ODI World Cup title.

“I think we’ve come a long way since the start of the tournament,” Cummins said. “The first two games were two tough teams to come up against. And with the bowling, I think we’ve just got better and better in all phases. So yeah, it feels like we’re really well-placed. We’ve obviously played a lot of cricket over the last month and it just feels like everyone knows their role and it’s starting to click.”

Meanwhile, Pat Cummins stated that none of the surfaces in this World Cup have created an issue for his team. He saw the report which raised some concerns about the pitch that is being used in Mumbai for India Vs New Zealand. However, Cummins did not notice anything fishy about the playing surfaces that were used in the World Cup 2023.

“Yeah, I saw that (report),” Cummins said. “You know obviously, ICC has an independent pitch curator who manages that – so I’m sure they’re all over making sure it’s fair for both teams. So far at this tournament (the pitches) that we’ve played on, I haven’t seen any issues.”

Australia will be looking to reach an eighth World Cup final and for that, they will have to defeat South Africa in the semi-finals who are having a dream run in this World Cup. Quinton de Kock is second in terms of most runs scored in this tournament with 591 runs in nine innings and he will prove to be a big threat for the Aussies in the semi-finals.