Border, who this weekend will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Australia's World Cup win on the subcontinent, said Cummins should have been picked in the 16-man squad for the four-Test series, beginning next month.

The national selectors have opted for only three specialist quicks – Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Jackson Bird – but Cummins could yet join the tour during the break between the second and third Tests, when the selectors said they would review the pace line-up.

Cummins has stepped up his comeback this summer from back stress fractures and has been part of Australia's one-day international set-up. But it's in the long form of the game where he needs to be able to show he can back-up over the course of days.

Since his famous Test debut when he was man-of-the-match against South Africa in Johannesburg in 2011, he has not played another Test, and has been restricted to only eight first-class matches.

"I personally would have taken a gamble on another paceman, probably Pat Cummins. I think he is ready to go. I am not sure why they are holding him back so much. Obviously they know, the inner sanctum," Border said on SEN on Friday.

"I don't understand it, but it is the new thinking. I would have been very tempted to have that firepower bowling option.

"The way I look at it, if you use Pat Cummins properly, you probably only have to bowl 16 to 18 overs in a day. You just do it in four short bursts and you just let him rip. To me, if I am a batsman, I know who I would prefer to face, even on a turning track.

"He is guy that could probably get some reverse swing as well which would be really key to doing really well over there – the fast blokes when the ball gets older and gets torn up a bit."

Australia are determined to nurse Cummins, 23, back to full health with a view to him being a key member of a pace barrage for next summer's home Ashes series.

Australia will take four spinners to India – off-spinner Nathan Lyon, left-arm finger spinners Steve O'Keefe and Ashton Agar and leg-spinner Mitch Swepson. Lyon and O'Keefe will be the front-line options, with Swepson – who continues to impress in the Big Bash League – seen more as a project player. Agar could be used as more of an all-rounder.

"I am not sure if we are going to beat them [India] with just spin options," Border said.

"Traditionally, the off-spinners have done pretty well there. I think back to Greg Matthews in the tied Test [in 1986] and he was phenomenal. Jason Krejza got 12 wickets in a Test match [2008].

"The offies have done OK, but you have got to bowl well and have that mindset – sometimes we over-attack. We have got to take a deep breath and play a bit more of a defensive game, at times.

"They [India] have got a phenomenally good batting line-up. To get out 20 wickets to win games, we are going to have to show a lot more patience than we normally do."

Throughout his distinguished career, Border had little Test success on the subcontinent. The tied Test of '86 came amid a winless, drawn series, when his young side was beginning a major rebuild.

The unexpected success of the '87 World Cup, hosted by India and Pakistan, was one of the turning points for a side ravaged by retirements and defections to the rebel tours of South Africa.

"I went to India and Pakistan, I don't know how many games I played in India, the subcontinent, and never won a [Test]. This has been going on for 40 years, this type of problem. It's nothing new," Border said.

Australia claimed a 3-1 series win in India in 1969-70 but it wasn't until 2004 under stand-in skipper Adam Gilchrist before another was celebrated.

"We have got to find a way. Hopefully, we have got the group together that can collectively hunt as a pack," Border said.

"You can't just go off individual performances here and there. You have to really hunt as a pack in India. Fingers crossed they find their form at the right time."