Australia captain Pat Cummins said that Test cricket decline is not as dramatic as it gets spoken about. Australia is all set to face Pakistan in the third and final Test of the series at the Sydney Cricket Ground on January 3.

Pakistan’s tour of Australia: Full coverage

Australia will be looking to clean-sweep Pakistan when they take them on in Sydney. The hosts have already taken an unassailable 2-0 lead, having won the first match by 360 runs and the second one by 79 runs.

The third match of the series will also be Australia opener David Warner’s final game in Test cricket, who recently also announced his retirement from ODIs.

Speaking ahead of the third Test, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo, Cummins said the crowds poured in great numbers to watch their Test series against Pakistan, adding that he expects it to become even stronger as time passes. There were over 60,000 fans watching Australia’s Boxing Day Test against Pakistan at one point of time.

“My hopes are that it’ll be even stronger than it is now, in ten years’ time or 20 years’ time. I think in some regards leading to this Test summer, some of the question marks were against Pakistan and West Indies. We’ve had two fantastic Test matches against Pakistan, really well supported, big crowds,” said Cummins.

He went on to say that the decline of Test cricket is not as dramatic as it gets spoken about, while insisting that the problems lies in the amount of cricket being played. The Test calendar is being cramped up even further with the emergence of more and more franchise leagues.

“So I don’t think it’s in as dramatic a decline as sometimes it gets spoken about. But I think there is an issue just with the amount of other cricket out there, obviously, competition for talent is higher than it’s ever been,” Cummins added.

Australia Squad for Final Test vs PAK

Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Steve Smith, Mitch Starc, David Warner

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