After so many dark days it’s Pat Cummins’ time to shine in Ashes

Pat Cummins and Steve Smith’s relationship began when they were teenagers and continues today as they lead Australia into an Ashes series

Australian skipper Pat Cummins at The Gabba. Picture: Jerad Williams

After the longest, most painful winter for generations, Australian cricket’s oldest and most passionate contest, the Ashes, is finally back.

The Australian team will emerge on Wednesday to do what it does best – if it can remember how. The Australians have not played a Test since January. They have weathered a coaching controversy and endured the fall of their former captain Tim Paine over a sexting scandal.

In Brisbane they get the chance to reset with a new captain and a recycled vice-captain.

As a teenager Pat Cummins used to crash on Steve Smith’s couch and as a cricketer he made a name for himself in Smith’s cricket teams, but on Wednesday morning he will lead the Australian side onto the field with Smith his vice-captain.

It’s been a long journey for the two friends, just as it has been a long wait for lovers of Test match cricket who have endured ­another winter of discontent and denial.

The Australians have not toured for two years, they have dealt internally with tensions ­between coach and players, and externally with a scandal that cost Paine his job.

What a relief it will be when the coin is tossed and the first of the five-match series gets under way at the Gabba.

Pat Cummins, left, slept on Steve Smith’s couch when he was 18. Picture: Jerad Williams

Cummins’ close relationship with Smith dates back to the days when he had to drive in from the Blue Mountains to train and play at the SCG. “Smithy and I have been really good mates for a long time,” Cummins said. “When I was just turned 18, he lived in the city, I lived back at home, so I’d sleep on his couch, occasionally, to save a drive in.”

Smith lost the captaincy during the sandpaper scandal in 2018 but was appointed vice-captain after Paine stood down.

The former skipper will be handy support for the new one, who is the first fast bowler to captain Australia since the 1950s.

“He’s a legend of the game, tactically really switched on,” Cummins said. “He always comes up with different ideas. He’s captained 30-odd Test matches for us. So of course I’ll be leaning on him. I’ll be having the final say as captain, but I’ll be looking to him for ideas at times. And then in terms of, I guess, handing over to Steve, I think it’ll become clear when we’re out there if I need to.

“I’m not saying I’ll always be doing that, or I need to do that all the time, but there’ll be times where it’s hot, or I need to rest and I’ll have no problem handing over to him. You might see him moving fielders and having a bit more say than potentially you’ve seen before on a field, which is great.”

Cricket Australia has put out the fifth Test to a bidding process after Western Australia’s government made it impossible to host it there. Hobart is hoping to make up for losing a postponed game against Afghanistan but Sydney and Melbourne are assembling bids that will include the promise of a historic spectacle.