Pat Cummins plays down the possibility of leading Australia in Test cricket

Pat Cummins has had a wonderful summer at home. In the Test series against India, he was one of Australia’s best players as he picked up 14 wickets and scored 163 runs with the bat. He was their go-to man with both bat and ball. He continued his form against Sri Lanka as he registered his first 10-wicket haul. His spells of 4/39 in the first innings and 6/23 in the second innings blew away the Sri Lankan batting line-up.

In the absence of Josh Hazlewood and with Mitchell Starc misfiring, Cummins has emerged as the spearhead of this pace attack. Ahead of the Test match, Cummins was named as the joint vice-captain of the Test side alongside Travis Head. With Josh Hazlewood out injured and Mitchell Marsh dropped, the New South Wales pacer was handed the opportunity.

There have also been talks about the possibility of him leading the Aussies in the longest format sometime in the future. Former Australian cricketers have hailed the star pacer and said that he has it in him to lead the side. However, the 25-year-old pacer has played down all the hype. He feels his workload is already high and doesn’t want his performances with the bat and ball to go down. He also feels he might not make a great captain. However, he was upbeat about the possibility of a fast bowler leading the side.

“I think personally, I’d struggle trying to bowl and bat as well as lead the side. But there’s definitely room for it (a fast bowler becoming captain). I feel like in every Test I play, I bowl my overs and I’m absolutely cooked and I go down to fine leg and try to recover. I’m not thinking about field placements or who should be bowling or anything like that. I’m not sure I’d make a great captain at the moment,” Cummins was quoted saying to SEN.

Cummins hopeful of playing more white-ball cricket in the lead up to the World Cup

As an ODI team, Australia have been struggling. They have not won a bilateral ODI series since January 2017. They recently lost the three-match ODI series against India despite being 1-0 up. The frontline pacers, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood were rested with the Test series against Sri Lanka in mind.

Hence, with no more red-ball cricket in the next few months, Cummins is hopeful that he gets to play more in the shorter formats. After this series against Sri Lanka, the Aussies have a couple of away ODI assignments (India and Pakistan). Thus, the 25-year-old wants to play most of those games. He feels he had a good two-week break ahead of this Sri Lanka series.

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