Australia captain Pat Cummins admitted that his team deserved scrutiny after suffering two consecutive heavy defeats against hosts South Africa, losing the three-Test series 2-1 at Newlands on Saturday.
Chasing a target of 288, Australia struggled from the outset and were bowled out for just 111, going down by 176 runs in the third Test. This followed their innings-and-31-run defeat in the second match.
Australia are set to host New Zealand next, and Cummins acknowledged that the series loss would inevitably raise questions, particularly as South Africa replaced Australia at the top of the Test world rankings.
“We lost two games in a row. I think it’s fair to be asking questions and we’ll be asking them internally as well,” Cummins told reporters. “We are a very good side but I think we need to get a little bit better if we want to get back to number one (in the world).
“Maybe that’s a change of style, maybe it’s a change of personnel in some instances. We’ll work it out.”
Cummins had made an unexpected choice to field first after winning the toss on the opening morning. Such a decision had been made only 11 times previously in Test matches at Newlands since 1889.
As the match unfolded, batting in the final innings proved challenging on a deteriorating pitch. Australia were undone by Simon Harmer’s spin, with the bowler claiming career-best match figures of 10-120.
“We knew it was going to be a high-scoring game,” Cummins said. “We probably thought it was going to do a little bit more on day one than it did.
“You don’t win the toss and think you’re going to bowl the opposition out for 100 or 200 but we thought we could get 10 wickets on day one and that would put us right ahead of the game.”
Cummins added that poor shot selection and decision-making had cost Australia’s batters, saying their chances of successfully chasing the target had effectively disappeared within the first 30 minutes of play.
“Chasing 280-odd was never going to be easy but we all turned up today and saw a pretty clear path forward. I thought it was achievable but we never really gave ourselves a chance,” he said.
