Why Pat Cummins is a future Australian captain

Moments before the start of the Australia vs South Africa series former Australian skipper Michael Clarke made a bold comment that Pat Cummins is a future captain of the national cricket team.

Recalling his debut against South Africa seven years earlier, Clarke commented that he could foresee his own future not just as a bowler but as an all-rounder who could contribute in all facets of the game and also that he would eventually captain the side too.

Fast forward back to today and Cummins has gone from impressing on his comeback tour to India to playing all nine Tests in 2017 consecutively without breaking down, which must be an excellent relief for him.

Cummins wasn’t just the leading wicket-taker in the Ashes with 23 scalps, but his 40s helped his country a great deal in the batting department as well, plus he was always athletic in the field too.

There’s no doubt he has become a captain favourite. First it was Michael Clarke, and now Steve Smith is giving him full backing. The more he plays, the better he will become.

(Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

At just 24 the future looks bright for Cummins – unless of course a series of injuries bug him again. From 19 to 23 is when a fast bowler’s body is most vulnerable, and Cummins has gone under the knife in this age range.

However, now that he’s done with rehab and knows his body better, he can be expected to work smartly moving forwards. He cannot play all the matches given the number of international cricket matches in a calendar year; the key is to manage the workload as structured by the high-performance team.

In that way 2017 was an excellent year for him and in all likelihood was the start of something extraordinary.

With Mitch Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Cummins as a bowling trio Australia have got a balanced attack. Starc is a replica of Mitch Johnson; Josh Hazlewood is just like Glenn McGrath, perhaps with bit more pace; and Cummins has got pace and good variation for bowling well at all stages in the game. Under the tutelage of Zaheer Khan he seems to have picked up how to reverse swing the old ball, so that certainly adds to his bowling arsenal.

Despite all those years on the sidelines, by the end of this series Cummins is odds-on to be only the 10th Australian ever to take 50 Test wickets by the age of 25. Two months short of his 25th birthday he’s already made 44 wickets at 25 in the 10 Tests he has played up to now.

Richie Benaud between 1958 and 1963 was the last bowler to lead Australia, but it looks like we could have an another one in Pat Cummins. Cummins is a fast bowler with the world at his feet, and it is going to be a treat watching him bowl in coming years while he hits the form of his life at around 27 or 28 – and there’s still plenty of time until he gets there.