Pat Cummins is mounting an argument to be considered Australia’s best bowler after again producing an incisive burst just when his team needed it on day one of the fourth Test in South Africa.
The hosts were cruising at 2 for 247 yesterday when Cummins dismissed batting prodigy Aiden Markram for 152 and captain Faf du Plessis for a golden duck in consecutive balls to bring Australia back into the contest.
Debutant Chadd Sayers built on Cummins’ work by taking two quick wickets with the second new ball to leave South Africa 6 for 313 at stumps.
It was a similar story in the third Test when Cummins produced an extraordinary old-ball spell of 4 for 12 after the Proteas had been in total control at 2 for 220.
With 60 wickets at 24 in Tests, Cummins is building a formidable record. He may be just 14 matches into his career, but he has swiftly become Australia’s go-to bowler when the opposition is on top.
Over the course of his 13 Tests since returning to the side in India last year, the 24-year-old has been easily Australia’s most consistently effective bowler.
Australia have played in a huge range of conditions over that time, from slow decks in India, to dustbowls in Bangladesh, roads in Australia and grassier pitches in South Africa.
He’s adapted very well to each set of conditions, outdoing his more experienced bowling colleagues in the process.
Mitchell Starc remains Australia’s most dynamic bowler, capable of match-turning bursts with the new or old ball. But Starc is nowhere near as accurate or consistent as Cummins, who rarely bowls a truly poor spell. Josh Hazlewood was Australia’s supreme bowler when Cummins came back into the side a year ago.
Since then, Cummins has comfortably outbowled him. Both players were similarly effective in home conditions in the Ashes, but it’s been away from home where Cummins has shown up Hazlewood.
Nathan Lyon, meanwhile, is a quality spinner who has enjoyed a wonderful past year in Tests. Yet, he is not, and likely will never be, an all-conditions strike bowler like Cummins. When conditions suit, Lyon he can become a weapon, while the rest of the time he is a capable support bowler. Cummins, by comparison, is a weapon regardless of the state of the pitch.
(AP Photo/Halden Krog)
In this way he is like South Africa’s superstar quicks Kagiso Rabada and Dale Steyn, who throughout their Test careers have consistently managed to take the pitch out of the equation.
Cummins has been comfortably Australia’s best bowler in this away series, with 16 wickets at 24. Starc has taken 12 wickets at 34, while Hazlewood’s return is 12 wickets at 33.
That makes it three consecutive away series in which Cummins has eclipsed Hazlewood, following on from Bangladesh and India last year. Across those three series Cummins has snared 30 wickets at 26, compared to Hazlewood’s 21 wickets at 35.
The major difference between the pair has been their levels of penetration. Hazlewood has often been reduced to a stock bowler, trying to build pressure for his colleagues, while Cummins far more often has been a genuine wicket-taking threat.
That’s reflected in their respective strike rates across those series – Cummins (53) versus Hazlewood (77). Now consider that Cummins has managed all this while consistently being denied the new ball, which has been owned by Starc and Hazlewood.
The latter of that experienced pair had an ordinary day yesterday with 0 for 60 from 18 overs. Sayers had similarly underwhelming figures until grabbing the late wickets of AB de Villiers (69) and nightwatchman Kagiso Rabada (0).
The South Australian showcased his renowned swing, getting the ball to move both ways through the air. Sayers did not, however, achieve the necessary precision to fully exploit that movement. He was too short and too wide in his first spell before hitting better areas as the day wore on.
Yet, for the most part, Sayers looked innocuous.
At times he bowled at just 118km/h, which is 10km/h slower than the military mediums former wicketkeeper Matthew Wade once served up in a Test. For the most part, Sayers operated in the 123-128kmh range, which is slightly slower than Vernon Philander, the South African champion who has been an inspiration for him.
Philander has overcome his lack of speed by hitting a testing line and length more often than any other seamer in world cricket. Sayers found such precision hard to locate yesterday and will need to rectify that if he is to build on this one Test.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Yeah, I don't know if and when things changed with the balls. But I'm pretty sure they used to swing conventionally a lot more than they do now, where you often get literally 4-5 overs where it will swing if you are lucky.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I don't expect him to do it, but I also don't see any reason why he couldn't. Even at almost 31 years old. One off season with the right sort of training designed to build speed into the body and he'd come out next season with more pace. I suspect he's happy being the pace he is and won't consider it, but I don't see his age as a hinderance, it's not like he's 35+.
Simoc
Guest
Rahul also picked the Australian team to score only around 250 in the first dig last test while SA were batting in their first dig. Seems to know his stuff. Seems Ronans stopped giving us updates on the Poms in NZ!
ak
Roar Guru
https://youtu.be/oW1qy1jh9j8
Dave.sa
Guest
Despite the T3 shenanigans it’s been a good series. I thought it may be over but wished it wasn’t ... I got my wish. The Aussies are fighting hard. Marram wa great. AB batted well.. great moment for Sayers. Cummins was good. The pitch provides an even balance between bat and ball. And both teams are sticking to business...and playing hard. Couldn’t have hoped for more It might turn out to be the best test.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
I agree Chris it confuses me greatly that Sayers has never gone to play county cricket. He surely would get a contract if he sought one. If he had gone to play county this season and done well that would boost his Ashes chances massively
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Sayers turns 31 in a few months though Chris so very hard to see him increasing his pace significantly at this stage of his career
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Crickey I still can't understand why Paine took Cummins off so quickly after he was on a hat trick. Cummins was on fire in that spell and looked to have another wicket or two left in him. I, and the TV commentators, assumed Paine must have been saving Cummins for the second new ball but he didn't bowl at all with second new ball. That to me was a real blunder by Paine, Australia had an opening when Cummins took two in two and instead he brought on Marsh who was hammered and the match slipped away. Anyway, it's his first day in the job so can't be too harsh.
Rellum
Roar Guru
I am the opposite, this Test is of greater interest to me. I like Paine as skipper. He has a real cricketers quality to him, confident and thinking. He seems to be leading them well.
Rellum
Roar Guru
They are very soft as well, so the seam does even less because of that. My question is why has Kookaburra made the balls that way recently? Or is there even a change compared to 20 years ago.
Basil 1 of 2
Guest
I understand your point. Just to clarify though, Sayers has played a couple of games in England on an A tour and from memory took 11 wickets for not much.
AREH
Roar Guru
I agree that he has to do that to give himself the best chance. It's the case for many batsmen, in that they need county cricket exposure to prepare them for an Ashes series abroad, so why wouldn't this be the same for the bowlers? Sayers could - and probably would - be a handful in ideal conditions in the UK, yet he needs to have already experienced them. It's staggering he's never actually done so before, as it suits his bowling far more than Australian pitches. (Not that it's stopped him from wreaking havoc in the Sheffield shield, however)
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I think Kookaburra need to do something about the balls as well. Just put a slightly bigger seam on them. The seam's on the test match balls are smaller than the seams on pretty much any other Kookaburra balls and the result is they tend to only get natural swing for a handful of overs. The result is that by the 10 over mark teams are already thinking about what they can do to get the ball to reverse. You get a Kookaburra Regulation, which has more seam than the test match balls, and play in grassy conditions where the ball doesn't rough up, and you'll get natural swing for a long time. But these test match balls lose natural swing after a handful of overs thus forcing everyone to try and get the ball to rough up enough to start reversing as the only way to take wickets.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
If Sayers wants to be considered for the Ashes next year, I'd really like to see him playing county cricket this year. I've seen so many people talk about how he'd be perfect for English conditions, but for a 30 year old who's been playing first class cricket for years, and being someone people talk about as suiting English conditions, it's inexplicable that he's never played a single game in England.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Mind you, pace is something that can be trained for. Plenty of medium pacers in the past have done the work to improve their pace and it's worked. Ryan Harris was little more than a medium pacer for much of his career, but after changing states he did the work that enabled him to bowl consistently in the 140's without sacrificing accuracy in the process. Not saying every medium pacer has to do that, but if he was able to keep the swing and accuracy but at 10km/h average pace, it would likely make him more threatening.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Yep, they are saying it's an extended time on the sidelines and he's been ruled out of the IPL also.
Basil 1 of 2
Guest
So he took wickets when his pace dropped? Why is this a problem?
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
KL Rahul turns 26 in a couple of weeks though so I wouldn't classify him as a young batsman. Rahul is a serious talent though.
Markram is only playing his 10th test match, at this point he is showing great potential, can't really ask for much more at this stage.
BurgyGreen
Guest
Only Kohli and Elgar averaged over 40 in that series, the wickets were absolute minefields.