MANCHESTER: Australia captain Pat Cummins said his team will refrain from celebrating the fact they have retained the Ashes and will put all their efforts into winning the final Test of the series in London and claiming a first series triumph on England soil since 2001.
The entire final day of the fourth Test was lost due to rain here on Sunday and the drawn match ensured Australia holds on to their 2-1 series lead and will retain the Ashes yet again regardless of the outcome in the fifth Test of an enthralling series at The Oval that starts on Thursday.
And while Cummins admits Australia had achieved what they set out to do at the start of the tour by regaining the Ashes, the captain feels there is some unfinished business within the squad and is eyeing off a first series tri-umph in England for 22 years.
“It’s a bit of a strange one,” Cummins said after the drawn Test at Old Trafford.
“As a group (we are) proud that we’ve retained the Ashes but it’s off the back of not our greatest week. It feels like it’s good to retain the Ashes, but we know we’ve got a fair bit of work to do for next week.
“I don’t think there will be huge celebrations. Maybe a bit of a pat on the back for retaining the (Ashes). There’s been a lot of work gone into putting us into a position where a draw does make us retain the Ashes. But there’s a Test match starting in three days so that’s going to be our full focus.
“It’s a pretty similar group to 2019 when we retained it and we all came away feeling OK but we felt like we’d just missed what we’d come over to achieve. In some regards whatever happened today wouldn’t really change how we look at next week. We want to win it to make sure we win it outright,” he was quoted as saying by ICC. IANS
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