Australia captain Pat Cummins believes his side's rare series win in Asia has reaffirmed that their normal blueprint for success can translate abroad and will give them a major confidence boost ahead of tours of Sri Lanka and India.
Australia completed a 1-0 series victory over Pakistan after claiming the third Test in Lahore thanks to five wickets from Nathan Lyon on the final day and three from Cummins, who was named player of the match after bagging eight wickets across both innings.
Usman Khawaja was named player of the series for his superb performance with the bat over three Tests compiling 496 runs at 165.33, with two hundreds and two nineties, including 91 and 104 not out in Lahore.
But the contributions of Australia's fast bowlers - Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Cameron Green - who combined to take 23 of Australia's 41 wickets for the series, on slow pitches that were supposed to nullify their influence, proved that their normal method of attacking with pace bowling can succeed in Asia.
"It's probably potentially not as spinning conditions here as we might get in Sri Lanka," Cummins said after the match. "But I think in the past Asian tours that I've been on, there's a lot of talk when we leave Australia that we've got to change everything about our game to succeed over here.
"This is a good lesson that the basics of batting or bowling that make you a good player in Australia can hold up over here. If anything, I think it's reaffirmed that our games will hold up."
Cummins felt that his playing group could take a lot of confidence into the two-Test tour in Sri Lanka in July, particularly after some of his younger members such as Green and Alex Carey had made meaningful contributions towards just the third series victory by an Australian Test team in Pakistan.
"Winning overseas just doesn't happen very often. It's been a real toil for the last 25-30 days really. And to come away with a series is hugely satisfying."Pat Cummins
"The amount of confidence we'll get out of winning over here, not just as a team but so many individuals," Cummins said. "Every individual had their moment and has shown that their game stands up to Asian conditions. So it's huge for Sri Lanka later in the year, India next year. That's awesome."
Cummins said he was immensely satisfied after becoming the first Australian captain to win a series in Asia since Michael Clarke in 2011. It was the first overseas series victory by any Australian team since New Zealand in 2016. Their best results in the interim had been drawn series in Bangladesh in 2017 and England in 2019. Australia had not travelled overseas for a Test tour since the 2019 Ashes series.
"Everyone's just totally elated," Cummins said. "Winning overseas just doesn't happen very often. It's been a real toil for the last 25-30 days. We knew it was going to be totally different to normal life in Australia, under different conditions. And to come away with a series is hugely satisfying."
The team won't get much time to celebrate together. Cummins, David Warner, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood will head home for a break, with Cummins, Warner, and Hazlewood then heading to the IPL soon after. The ODI and T20I squad members will remain in Lahore for the limited-overs series which begins with the first ODI on Tuesday.
Alex Malcolm is an Associate Editor at ESPNcricinfo
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