Australia currently has a generational cricketer at the helm of its cricket team.
A fierce competitor, who has delivered for his country, repeatedly, in massive moments.
A man who has overcome significant adversity in his career to lead his country to be the holder of close to every possible trophy in world cricket.
But do we realise it? Does he get the flowers he deserves? Do we appreciate just how good he is?
It’s high time a lot of the Australian sporting public maybe put aside the fact he cares about the future of the planet, is a bit more softly-spoken and is genuinely just a nice bloke (like any of that’s an issue) and maybe gives this bloke some proper credit.
He is, in my opinion, currently hurtling towards being in the top 10 cricketers we have ever produced and there is no doubt he’s at the pinnacle of the current crop of this elite fast bowling brigade.
Let’s not forget – his career is one of a remarkable resurgence after it looked like he would be yet another promising fast bowler who succumbed to the scourge of repeated stress fractures.
He spent six years out of red ball cricket from the 2010/11 Sheffield Shield final until the 2016/17 season and didn’t play a Test for 1946 days (five years, three months and 27 days) after bursting onto the scene as an 18-year-old in Cape Town in 2011.
A lot of the public backlash around Cummins as a leader seemed to stem from the decision to remove Justin Langer as coach – a decision that was largely player driven.
Langer, whilst undoubtedly a very decent human and a legend of the game, is an extremely intense individual. I get exhausted after listening to him for 15 minutes on Channel 7’s cricket coverage.
Pat Cummins celebrates with teammates. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Cummins copped wide criticism at the time in his presser for remarking in response to the ex-players rallying around Langer: “Just as you have always stuck up for your mates, I’m sticking up for mine”.
There was a perception within the Australian Cricket Team that a lot of the group was afraid to speak their mind due to Langer’s intensity and had evolved past this approach. Cummins was the man who put his hand up to jump on the grenade and own it – as he should as captain.
Whilst on the surface the Langer decision seemed harsh – it has without doubt been the correct one. Modern coaching is about people management and relationships – not fire and brimstone.
Times, society and the needs of athletes change. Andrew McDonald is more a Chris Fagan compared with Langer’s Denis Pagan approach.
Under McDonald – Australia has won a series in Pakistan for the first time in 25 years, the World Test Championship, regained the Ashes, won the World Cup (in India) and taken back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in a decade.
Rather than the reported ‘walking on eggshells’ environment that formed around Langer – McDonald and Cummins have created a positive, welcoming environment and culture, evidenced by Beau Webster’s quotes after his Test debut.
Another gripe of Cummins has been around his tactical nous when in the field. It is built into Australian cricket to want attack at all times, and this is an expectation built into its fan base.
The team understandably came under question for its defensive field settings during the Ashes as a counter to ‘Bazball’, and its tactic of bowling short at the tail.
As a viewer, I become frustrated with it also, but I find there’s a real lack in cricket discourse of asking why they employ these field settings. Commentators seem to jump out of their skin to say what they’d do in the same situation, but very rarely explain why what is happening on the screen is happening in the fashion that it is.
It is clearly a team-led collaborative decision based on data and analytics. They have probably (correctly) surmised that taking away the boundary-scoring options of a Ben Stokes, Harry Brook or a Rishabh Pant is a more effective way to halt their momentum and dismiss them before too much damage is done.
(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Modern batsmen, with the advent of bat technology and their range-hitting prowess, can take a game from within your control to out of it in a matter of half an hour if you’re too stubborn to adapt.
As Australians, with our attack-at-all-costs mindset, it goes against the grain of what we are accustomed to, but it’s been pretty hard to argue with the results of this group.
Cummins’ greatest strength as a leader has been his ability to lead by example and help drag his team out of the mire time and time again, both obviously with the ball, but also with the bat.
Cummins is clutch. His moments of performance when Australia’s backs are against the wall are numerous and consistent – and particularly more so since being made captain on the eve of the 2021/22 Ashes.
His double-strike of Rory Burns and Joe Root on the fourth evening of the 2019 Old Trafford test saw England reduced to 2/0 and led to Australia retaining the Ashes.
He dismissed Ajinka Rahane for 89 and broke a 106-run partnership with Jadeja in the World Test Championship Final which broke the back of the Indians.
His epic partnership with Nathan Lyon won Australia the 2023 Edgbaston Test, which is my favourite test win of the last decade.
He was also the anchor to the Glenn Maxwell show as Australia recovered from 7/91 against Afghanistan in the 2023 World Cup chasing 292.
He took the game-changing wicket of Virat Kohli in the 2023 World Cup Final where India was 3/148 in the 29th over before slumping to 240 all-out, and scored 64 not out against the West Indies in Brisbane under lights after coming to the crease at 7/161.
He guided Australia home in Christchurch from seven down with 70 to get with Alex Carey in February 2024 and got Australia home in this summer’s first ODI against Pakistan to the target of 204 with 32 not out after coming to the wicket at 7/155.
His twin knocks of 49 and 41 at critical times in this summer’s epic Boxing Day Test were massive, and he took the vital wicket of Rishabh Pant as he threatened to take the game away from Australia in the second innings of the series-defining fifth Test in Sydney.
(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
Since becoming captain, Cummins has taken 125 wickets at 23.79. He also was named Wisden’s Leading Cricketer in the World in 2023. Australia has a test win percentage of 74% under his captaincy and holds every bilateral trophy in Test cricket.
After the recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy win, where Cummins claimed 25 wickets at 21.36 for the series and also contributed 159 runs at 19.87, Ravi Shastri remarked: “He amazes me. He never gives up and it’s like that session after session – he’ll come at you with the ball… And just when the chips were down, various times in the series, he rose to the occasion. Not just with the ball, but with the bat as well.”
He is him – as the kids say.
It’s time we as an Australian sporting public start realising what we have.
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