'He's such a warrior': Cummins hails Starc ahead of 100th Test, expects unchanged XI

Mitchell Starc celebrates one of the most recent of his 495 career Test wickets.
Mitchell Starc celebrates one of the most recent of his 495 career Test wickets.Randy Brooks / AFP
Australia's captain said he could hardly be happier with how the three-Test tour of the Caribbean is panning out, particularly the 'really light' workloads of their aging fast bowlers.

Speaking to a press pack of mostly Australian reporters after their comfortable second Test victory in Grenada, Cummins said he was delighted with how few overs he and his fellow Australia fast bowlers have had to send down after bowling the West Indies out four times within 64, 34, 74 and 35 overs respectively, with Josh Hazlewood's 30 match overs in the first Test the most bowled by any of their three frontline quicks. 

"Away wins aren't the easiest to come by, so really pumped by how well we bounced back after Lord's," Cummins opened the press conference with. 

"It's good to secure (the series win) before the pink ball Test next week, because they seem to throw up something different. It's a dream start, really, and it gets us into the (new WTC) cycle. We've played some really good cricket."

The visitors had set their hosts a difficult run chase of 277 on a pitch that was only getting harder to bat on as time went on, and in an eerily similar manner to the first Test in Barbados, the West Indies quickly crumbled in the fourth innings and couldn't even see out a brief 35 overs. 

Cummins felt from the outset that the run chase was going to be too difficult for their opponents.

"It felt like there was always something in it and it just felt like it was going to deteriorate more and more as the game went on," he said of the National Stadium pitch.

"Anything over (a lead of) 200 we were happy and once we got 250, 275 we really felt in the box seat. It was a tricky pitch, up and down even from day one."

Despite signalling after the recent World Test Championship final that rotation amongst their aging fast bowlers is going to be a strategy going forward, Cummins anticipates that his side will field an unchanged XI for the third and final game at Sabina Park in Jamaica, which is scheduled to be played under lights with a pink ball pending a final approval by the International Cricket Council of the stadium's newly installed floodlights.

"We'll give it a couple of days and see how it goes, but I think we've all bowled something like 25 overs for the match which is really light. That's another big tick along with the win."

That means that veteran quick Mitchell Starc is due to play his 100th career match in Jamaica, becoming the 16th man from Australia to do so.

"We'll come up with something like a couple of presents or a bit of memorabilia," Cummins said of impending celebrations amongst the team to acknowledge the milestone.

"It's a huge effort for a fast bowler. I can't fathom bowling 100 games and bowling his kind of speed. He's such a warrior. He just turns up every week and wants to play and turns it on. Such a low fuss kind of guy.

"All things going well, next week will be a great week. It's a pretty small crew who have played 100 Tests - I think he's the second (Australian) fast bowler, which is really tough to do. I'm proud of him."