Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood move past famous West Indian duo in record books

The real measure of this Australian attack is not how they are faring against this current West Indian team, but how they stack up against the greats of Caribbean cricket, writes ROBERT CRADDOCK.

Beating this humble West Indian team is not a major triumph – beating Joel Garner and Michael Holding is.

Hidden in the fine print of Australia’s demolition of a woefully outclassed West Indian top order was the fact that Pat Cummins edged past Garner on the Test wicket-takers list and Josh Hazlewood eclipsed Holding.

The two West Indian champions of the 1980s were among the finest bowlers to have played the game and it seems almost incongruous to think they played for the same outfit which is making up the numbers at Test level today.

The West Indian top order, with raw techniques and limited patience, simply didn’t have the mental or technical fibre to cope with Hazlewood’s grinding seam and he took four wickets by the midpoint of the day to pass Holding’s tally of 249 wickets from seven more Tests.

Cummins’ comparison with Garner is more telling.

Cummins started the day eyeballing the sky-scraping 203cm “Big Bird’’ Garner with one fewer wicket (258) from an identical number of Tests (58).

Garner, well known in these parts after two hugely successful Sheffield Shield seasons for South Australia in the early 1970s, had the slightly better average (20.97 to 22) but Cummins took his wickets quicker.

But just the fact that their records are near identical was testament to the rarefied air in which Cummins is reaching for Garner, with his vicious bounce, and pinpoint control, was one of the most underrated bowlers of all time.

After 19 Test wickets at 12 against Pakistan, Cummins is having an exceptional summer and his supreme quality was evident from the outset when he whipped out the two biggest dangermen Tagenarine Chanderpaul and skipper Kraigg Brathwaite.

Chanderpaul was brilliantly caught by Cameron Green in the gully while Brathwaite fell to a wicked delivery which was angled into him and straightened to knock back off stump.

It started all sorts of conversations about whether Cummins is too generous to his fellow fast bowlers and should be taking the new ball.

It’s a convenient theory but the stats tell us that it doesn’t matter what condition the ball is in when Cummins bowls – the threat is white hot.

When he opens the bowling Cummins takes wicket at 23, when he comes on at first change it’s 24, and a bizarrely low 15 at second change.

So, the logic goes, if he can take them anywhere you might as well give the new pill to people who might benefit from it more and bring him on later.

Cummins challenged convention by bowling first on a pitch in which he could have easily batted but himself bowling for his own cause again proved a key advantage.

These are heady days for the Australian skipper.

A greater challenge will come when India play five Tests next summer but he is growing as a leader by the series.

Originally published as Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood move past famous West Indian duo in record books