Australia captain Pat Cummins has stated that his team's poor performance on the opening day was a primary cause of their first-ever Test loss to Bangladesh at Marrara Cricket Ground on Sunday. After posting just 198 on Day 1, Australia could not recover from the huge deficit and eventually lost the first Test match after chasing down a minuscule target of 57 on Day 4.

It was Bangladesh's first-ever Test win in Australia and their first-ever series win against the Aussies as a visiting team. Pat Cummins claimed that Australia had simply been outplayed by their rivals and was unable to reverse the momentum of the game after slipping early on.

Pat Cummins Pinpoints Day 1 as Australia's Biggest Problem

Reflecting on what went wrong in his team's defeat in the match, Cummins named Australia's first-innings collapse as the turning point of the Test.

Probably that day one,” said Pat Cummins, who believed that his team was prepared to face any kind of conditions and there were no reasons for Australia's underperformance.

The captain claimed that the day one wicket was “doing a little bit early” but they “got to try and find a way to bat a little bit longer than we did, and then just couldn't penetrate with the ball”.

Australia's failure to post a competitive first-innings total frustrated Cummins. Having suffered a poor start, Bangladesh made a stunning reply, and their bowlers troubled the Australian batsmen on numerous occasions during the second innings.

“I think they outplayed us in all facets, really,” said Pat Cummins. “They were really patient and quite disciplined. And once we were behind, it was really hard to get back.”

Defeated but not broken, the Australians now turn their attention to the decisive second Test at Mackay. Cummins is confident that his team will show a good fight in the next match.

“There are a couple of days between now and the next one, so we'll have a good think about this one and where we can improve,” he said.

Australia bounced back from a disastrous start to the series and now has a chance to equalize it in Mackay. The problem, according to Cummins, will be to replicate their performance.

Australia Back Themselves to Bounce Back in Mackay

“Probably we're pretty good at bouncing back,” said Pat Cummins. “We'll have a good look at this one and all the different groups, the batting group and bowling group, can have a good think about where we can improve.”

For Bangladesh, the series is already over as they secured a famous 2-0 win in Australia. They showed fantastic patience when needing to chase a relatively low score on the fourth day at Darwin. However, the visitors are well aware of the need to adjust their game in Mackay.

“We have to prepare for Mackay conditions as well because it will be a completely different story there,” said Tamim Iqbal.

Australia must strive to better their game if it wants to avoid a 2-0 defeat in the 2022 series. They lost the first Test because they could not score runs consistently and their bowlers were unable to disrupt Bangladesh's innings. Cummins is determined to fix these issues in Mackay.