As good as we could have wanted: Cummins

Regardless of which side of the ledger their respective teams ended up after Sunday's ICC Cricket World Cup practice match at the Adelaide Oval, the 'Coach's Book of Cliches' would provide an appropriate assessment for both the Australian and Indian camps.

India's coach Duncan Fletcher might well choose the 'you learn more from your defeats than your victories' response which, given his team remains winless on its lengthy Australian sojourn thus far, must mean his players are lugging about encyclopaedic knowledge along with their cricket kits.

Of course, if that was the message from the Indian camp then it remains under wraps because – given the match's unofficial status – they exercised their option not to provide a participant for the post-match media review.

Australia's coach Darren Lehmann would doubtless choose 'you practice as you play' from that voluminous text, and that was certainly the sentiment echoed by fast bowler Pat Cummins who was him team's press briefing representative in the wake of Australia's 106-run victory.

The fact that the 21-year-old speedster was one of more than half a dozen from his team who could have been trotted out to the media to cast light on the training run vindicates his rating of the exercise as delivering the Australians "probably a nine or ten" on the scale of 1 to 10.

"I think the most pleasing thing was we were pretty clinical for almost the whole 100 overs," Cummins said shortly after an emphatic all-of-team performance.

"We lost a few wickets but to get 371 and, on a really good wicket, to keep them down to much less than that with (India) batting all the way down to 11 I think it was pretty much as good we could have asked for.

"The batsmen went out and were fearless but batted quite normally, and in the field it was great.

"It was a pretty nice wicket out there tonight, it had a bit of pace in it which for a few of us bowlers we like to see that – a bit of pace and bounce.

"It felt like a wicket we could let rip (on).

"We looked at it as if it's the first game of our World Cup campaign and everyone is just really excited to be in the World Cup and I think it showed today when we were fielding, everyone was buzzing around."

Indeed, the only problem that might potentially emerge for the Australians in the wake of their latest win over their increasingly regular rivals is that the game's flexible format meant pretty much every fit member of the squad pushed their claim for the tournament opener against England next Saturday.

Cummins conceded he occupies a place in the fast bowlers' queue behind new-ball pair Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc, and that the chance of both he and fellow quick Josh Hazlewood making the starting XI as well might rest with the unresolved allrounder question.

That being whether the replacement for the injured James Faulkner will be a bowler capable of performing Faulkner's role in the latter overs, or a fellow allrounder who can be expected to carry some responsibility with the bat as well.

"Obviously Jimmy (Faulkner) is an allrounder so it might be an allrounder, it might be a bowler, I'm not sure," Cummins said when asked about the likely change for the line-up against England and even beyond.

"I think he does a great job at the death so I think one of us will need to step up and take that role but in terms of position in the side I'm not sure, we'll have to wait and see.

"The fact that there are 15 players (in the Cup squad) means that when you do get your chance you really want to go well.

"We were only going to bowl six overs (each in tonight's game) so we had to make sure our six overs were the best we bowl."

There is no longer any such debate about whether or not there is a place for all-rounder Glenn Maxwell in Australia's first-choice ODI XI.

His dazzling innings of 122 from 57 balls, which was only terminated when it was decided timely to give others in the batting line-up a hit, represented the final breakthrough for a player who looms as one of the most influential throughout the coming six-week tournament.

Now that Maxwell has posted that century in Australian colours (albeit in an unofficial game) that he so craved, his teammates are looking forward to kicking back in the dressing room and revelling in the show.

Even though we're not supposed to call him that any longer.

"Even us who have played with him (Maxwell) a lot and seen him in the nets we just sit back and enjoy it because we don't know what's next and I think he surprises himself half the time," Cummins said.

"I wouldn't like to be bowling to him."

That's a club that is likely to grow over the coming six weeks.

Australia’s World Cup Fixtures

February 14: v England, 2:30pm at the MCG

February 21: v Bangladesh, 1:30pm at the Gabba

February 28: v New Zealand, 2:00pm at Eden Park (NZ)

March 4: v Afghanistan, 2:30pm at the WACA

March 8: v Sri Lanka, 2:30pm at the SCG

March 13: v Scotland, 2:30pm at Blundstone Arena

View the full fixture list here