Australia’s Test captain Pat Cummins anticipates a heavier bowling workload for all-rounders Cameron Green and Mitchell Marsh during this summer’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India. Cummins plans to have both all-rounders share the burden with the main pace attack throughout the demanding five-Test series, beginning in November. “They’ve been invaluable,” Cummins noted during the Play Cricket week launch. “Interestingly, we’ve not relied on them as much as expected, which is a positive. The past few summers have featured relatively short Test matches, which kept things lighter for our bowlers.

“I suspect this summer might be a bit different at time. We’ll be drawing on Cam Green and Mitch Marsh a bit more.

“Even someone like Cam basically started in Shield cricket as a bowler but hasn’t had to bowl heaps in Test matches. Now he is a few years older, I think we will be leaning on him a bit more,” he added.

Cameron Green has 35 wickets in 28 Tests so far.

“The first point is they (Green and Marsh) both absolutely make the top six on their batting alone which is a luxury,” Cummins said.

“We’re really lucky that Nathan Lyon bowls plenty of overs, so you don’t necessarily have to have an all-rounder, but it makes a big difference to have that fifth bowling option.

“And with someone like Cam and Mitch we have six bowling options. It’s a really nice thing to have. Top six should always make the team on their batting.” Cummins’ bowling colleagues have been vocal about how having a bowling captain has benefited the team in managing the workload.

“It’s nice of them to say that, they’d never say it to my face,” Cummins said.