Former England captain Michael Vaughan expects Pat Cummins to bounce back to his best in Adelaide as Australia seeks to resurrect its hopes in what shapes as a legacy-defining series for the side.

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The Australian captain, who is expected to take the new ball in the pink ball Test against India beginning on Friday, was down on his premier pace in Perth as Australia suffered 295-run thrashing in the opening Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy series.

The Australians were challenged in every facet as their unbeaten run at Perth Stadium came to an end, with Cummins less effective with the ball than usual as queries arose about his field placements as India got on top in the Test.

The 31-year-old had not played a red ball game since Australia’s successful tour of New Zealand ending in March and Vaughan, who was a guest on Fox Cricket’s podcast The Follow On, believes the Perth outing will knock the rust off him.

THE FOLLOW-ON PODCAST: ‘Beatable’ – Michael Vaughan breaks down Aussie challenges + England’s triumph over NZ

“He’s a world-class performer, a brilliant captain and a brilliant bowler. (But) the one thing I’ll say is he did look short of a gallop in the First Test,” he told The Follow On.

“He’d not been playing any cricket. He had not played any longer format cricket since March. So I would think this week in Adelaide, he will be up on his pace because of what he did last week.

“I think the First Test will be good for him. He’s got some overs back into his body, into his mind, playing the longer format back into his system, and I think he’ll be better for it.”

Cummins secured only three wickets in Perth and was less economical than usual, finishing the Test with match figures of 3-153 from 40.4 overs.

An analysis by CricViz data, as reported by Code Sports, shows that Cummins’ speed has dipped from an average mark of 140.6km/h in 2018 to 136km/h over the past year.

His average has also increased slightly from 21.15 two years ago to 22.85, though that in itself is still an exceptional mark. His average this year is 29.45, though the analysis shows that he is still drawing a similar false shot percentage from opposition batters.

Vaughan noted the figure with interest and said a dip in pace could, theoretically, make it easier for top-order batters to go after the Australian great.

The Australian attack will be without the injured Josh Hazlewood, who was superb in Perth, with Scott Boland in line to replace him.

“Pace is a lot for Pat Cummins. If he is down to 135 (or so), I think he it gives the batters that extra little bit of time to adjust to the movement and the accuracy that he produces,” Vaughan said.

“We saw it in the Ashes, actually, a couple of years ago, that when England got after him, and when England got after Australia, England looked like a team that were dominating. The field was spread and run scoring became that much easier.”

The Australians started the summer with ambitions of wresting back the Border Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in a decade, with Cummins noting it was a legacy-defining series.

Vaughan said an argument could be made that while this has been a strong Australian team, the overall record flatters them, which adds importance to their performance in Adelaide.

“It feels like a big week for Australia,” he said.

“They are one-nil down. And the last time India were there, they bowled them out for 36 and blew them away, but they lost that series. And if you actually look at this Australian Test match team, they haven’t actually won any big series.

“They’ve got the Ashes. They managed to draw two-all, but anyone who was a real cricket student (would know that) if it was a boxing contest, England had Australia on the ropes.

“The rain in Manchester (saved them and) England blew them away in two games. The first two games at Edgbaston and Lords, England just played dumb cricket for one or two sessions and lost the game.

“But they were pretty much dominating the games and that would be a concern if I was an Australian, because if you’re looking at it really strategically in the way that this Test team have played, they haven’t played consistently great for a while.”

There is a clear concern around Australia’s top order, which was demonstrated again with the dearth of runs from the top four in Perth.

But Vaughan noted the First Test showed again that if rival sides could survive the initial red ball onslaught from the Australians, the highly-vaunted attack could also be tamed.

“That batting line up looks very vulnerable and when teams get the bowling attack into the 40th, 50th over and into their third and fourth spells — you’re always going to struggle upfront against this attack, because of the high class, they are world class — but if you can get them out of those first two spells and get them deeper into the innings, I’ve seen teams start to look like they can play a little bit with more comfort against this Australian side,” he said.

“And I guess when you can get on top against them, and India did that in Perth, the field spread and it looked like it was quite a nice time for an Indian player to be out in the middle. And that’s what teams are going to try and get the Australian team into.

“Whether you can is another skill set, because you got to play great to get into that position, but that’s, I would think, the kind of approach that team will try and play against Australia, is to see off those first two spells and then really try to capitalise.”