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Opinion
There has been plenty of hoo-ha amounting to a brouhaha from the moment Australia lost the third Test at Headingley about England now having the momentum heading into the final two Ashes contests.
Despite winning their previous three matches, including the World Test Championship final, questions are being raised about Australia from the top order to the tail.
England still have a couple of glaring dilemmas of their own – most notably who bats No.3 and will persisting with Jonny Bairstow as keeper pay off or cost them dearly at Manchester when the fourth Test gets underway on Wednesday.
But they definitely now have a much-needed shot of confidence after the introduction of Mark Wood’s raw pace unsettled the tourists and kept England’s hope alive of coming back from a 2-0 deficit to regain the urn.
Australia have many line-up variations they could settle upon when it comes to David Warner’s form slump, the all-rounder call between Mitchell Marsh and Cameron Green, whether to keep the faith in rookie spinner Todd Murphy and the overall make-up of their bowling attack with left-field options Michael Neser and Glenn Maxwell certainly getting tongues wagging.
Pat Cummins celebrates taking the wicket of Joe Root. (Photo by Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images)
Pat Cummins enjoyed a honeymoon period in his first 15 months as captain but the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series loss in India in March and a few missteps along the way in the Ashes have increased the scrutiny on his leadership.
Some agenda-driven critics were claiming Cummins wasn’t up to the job after the Aussies went down 2-1 in India. He captained the team in the first two Test losses before heading home on compassionate grounds to be with his dying mother.
One palooka claimed the dreaded scourge of “wokeness” had infiltrated the team under Cummins’ watch due to his concern about climate change and the players’ support for the Black Lives Matter Movement. You can’t make this scaremongering shit up but someone actually did.
When stand-in skipper Steve Smith showed his tactical acumen as the tourists won and drew the final two Tests, there were rumblings that he was the better option for the gig full-time.
To his credit, Smith poured cold water on any such suggestion.
The vice-captain’s role suits him perfectly – he can look after field changes when Cummins is bowling and offer advice as part of the on-field brains trust without returning to the full-time captaincy and all the baggage that would come with that.
Cummins is still learning on the job. He’d captained only briefly at senior level before he was suddenly vaulted into the Test leadership a few weeks before the previous Ashes series following Tim Paine’s abrupt resignation.
Australian fans are used to their skipper being a world-class batter who can dominate opposing attacks like Greg Chappell, Allan Border, Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke and Smith.
Steve Smith. (Photo by Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)
However, Cummins has defied the long-held belief that fast bowlers can’t also take on the role.
If one of the main tasks of a captain is to think of strategies to dismiss the opposing line-up, shouldn’t it stand to reason that the bowlers – the players whose primary mission is to get wickets – should be just as suitable for the role as batters, if not more so.
The 30-year-old NSW seamer had led Australia to an 11-4 record with four draws as he heads into his 20th Test as captain.
This equates to a winning rate of 57.89% and when you compare that against Australian skippers with more than 10 Tests as leader, his record is bettered only by Ponting (62.33 in 77 matches), Waugh (71.92 in 57), Lindsay Hassett (58.33 in 24 from 1949-53) and Sir Donald Bradman (62.5 in 24 from 1936-48).
Not bad company to be in when it comes to baggy green all-timers.
A captain’s record can depend greatly on the strength of the talent in the team but it’s not insignificant or irrelevant that he’s doing better statistically than renowned leaders of the past like Richie Benaud, Ian Chappell and Mark Taylor.
But that’s not to say Cummins doesn’t need to improve in some areas.
Australia got their tactics horribly wrong as Stokes launched nine sixes on the final day of the second Test to nearly steal the result. Ponting was ready to rage out of the Lord’s commentary box onto the field to tell Cummins and his fellow quicks to bowl wide of off stump T20 style rather than short into Stokes’ leg-side hitting zone.
A similar tale unfolded at Headingley in the closing stages of the three-wicket loss in the third Test when the field was spread out way too early when Chris Woakes and Mark Wood were at the crease copping a predictable bumper barrage.
If they had dismissed either of those players cheaply, the urn may already be in Australia’s keeping and England would be in disarray facing a potential series whitewash rather than puffing their chest out while talking up an improbable 3-2 comeback..
After winning the World Test Championship final over India last month, this Cummins-led Australian squad will elevate themselves from a very good side to a great one if they go on to finish off England in the Ashes.
They’re arguably the best Australian team in the post Warne-McGrath era this side of 2007 and any doubt will be removed if they clinch the Ashes at some stage over the next two weeks and change.
There will be a transition phase in the next few years as David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Smith, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc sail off into the sunset.
Cummins is a few years younger than them so overseeing the introduction of several new faces and maintaining Australia’s position as the Test kings will be an even tougher assignment in the second half of his captaincy reign.
And if he succeeds on that front as well, even his harshest critics will have to admit he’s not a bad captain after all.