Ashes: 'Pat Cummins' perfect start as Australia Test captain could be start of another successful era'
- Published
Highlights: Australia demolish England to win Ashes
It is difficult to fathom just how perfectly the rise to Australia's Test captaincy has gone for Pat Cummins.
The way he came to the job was anything but perfect - an emergency elevation after an off-field scandal and the resignation of his predecessor and friend Tim Paine.
This was quite the task just before the Ashes - the most febrile part of Australia's cricket calendar. Had his series started poorly, he could have crashed and burned.
Instead, Cummins has led a series win - ensuring the retention of the Ashes - in 12 days of play, bowling beautifully himself while marshalling his fellow bowlers to perfection.
Plenty of factors have aligned in his favour. He has mostly bowled on cool days and lively surfaces, in contrast to other Australian summers. Given his team's dominance, he has only had to send down 58.1 overs in the two matches he has played.
Even the match that he missed, sitting out in Adelaide after a Covid-19 scare, has given him a break during a densely packed series without him having to make a choice about whether to take one. He returned in Melbourne fresh and firing.
There will be far harder days, of course. When a batting team is on top and he is captaining while into his sixth spell after 150 overs in the field, the strain will come. But so far none of the concerns about a bowler being too tired or distracted to make captaincy decisions have been realised.
Through his career to date, one main characteristic of Cummins has been that he stays calm during play. He doesn't groan and agonise when he beats the bat. He doesn't get drawn into arguments with batters. He doesn't put on displays to claim injustice at the hands of umpires. He goes back and bowls the next ball.
This is demonstrated in the process that Cummins has put in place for sending decisions to the third umpire. Plenty of bowlers will insist to their captain that every umpiring refusal must immediately go upstairs, and Cummins as captain could turn around and fire the T-sign every time his appeal is turned down.
The moment Australia retained Ashes
In England's second innings in Melbourne, when he seamed back a ball that thundered into Haseeb Hameed's pad, he had a measured conversation with his wicketkeeper Alex Carey and Steve Smith at slip, then carried on bowling. He can remain detached from his work in a way that few others do.
His bowling changes have been excellent. When Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc were in the team in Brisbane, he did not let ego dictate that he should use the new ball, handing it to them instead. When Starc has been wayward, Cummins has quickly replaced him, then chosen good moments to bring him back.
On that final evening in Melbourne, he and Starc were bowling in tandem like a dream, reducing England to 22-2 across the course of 10 overs. With two overs left in the fading light, the obvious thing to do would have been to continue.
Instead, he brought on his Melbourne specialist Scott Boland, trusting that the local player would not need an adjustment period to hit the right length on that pitch. Boland duly took two wickets in three balls, all but sealing England's fate the following day.
Highlights: Late wickets put Australia on the brink of Ashes win
Everything we have seen so far indicates Cummins is very much up to the task, as a leader and tactician on the field as well as politically off the field. He has the tools to set about shaping a very successful era.
The harder challenges will soon begin. Australian teams have a generally poor record in Asia, and in 2022 this team will play nine Test matches there. This will probably involve more of those long hot fruitless days in the field, on surfaces that won't help fast bowlers.
But given the way Cummins bashed a sleepy track in Ranchi on his return to Test cricket against India in 2017, you wouldn't put it past him to find a way to succeed.
If he can keep that calm on the field, and keep making good decisions, he might be the captain to lead his team to success too.
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