IND vs AUS 2023: Adam Zampa will be key for Australia in death overs, says Pat Cummins

Australian skipper Pat Cummins has backed Adam Zampa to hold the key for them while bowling in the death overs. Zampa has all the weapons in his repertoire and he is going to play a crucial role for Australia in the forthcoming ODI showpiece.

The leg-spinner from New South Wales has scalped 139 wickets in 83 ODI matches at an average of 28.8 and an economy rate of 5.51. Zampa has been in decent form in the recent past as he scalped eight wickets in four ODI matches against South Africa at an average of 34.25 and finished as Australia’s leading wicket-taker in the series.

Zampa was also backed by stand-in skipper Mitchell Marsh to bowl the 48th over against South Africa in the final ODI and the leg-spinner got two wickets and conceded a solitary run.

“Zamps, he’s effective at not only keeping the run rate down but he can take a couple of wickets at the death, which is really important as well and sometimes it’s a bit harder for pace bowlers to do that,” Cummins said in the press conference.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we keep two, three or four overs up our sleeve with him,” he further added.

Zampa has picked up 17 wickets while bowling in the last 10 overs since the 2019 World Cup.

Meanwhile, Cummins wants his players to get used to the Indian conditions and get settle in their respective roles ahead of the ODI World Cup.

“We want to strike a balance between getting used to these conditions, hopefully winning some games, but also we don’t want to get to that first game (of the World Cup against India on October 8) and already be cooked,” Cummins said.

“But ideally, we’d like to structure up pretty closely to how we’re going to play in the World Cup. So batters batting in similar positions, as a captain I want to get used to how you use bowlers over here as it might be a bit differently to say South Africa or back in Australia,” he further added.

Australia will take on India in the first ODI at Mohali on Friday.