Legends back Pat Cummins to handle Test captaincy

With Tim Paine in a race to be fit for the Ashes there is greater urgency to the dilemma of who should succeed him and all roads lead to Pat Cummins.

Pat Cummins bowls for Australia in T20 World Cup being played in the UAE.

With Tim Paine in a race to be fit for the Ashes there is greater urgency to the dilemma of who should succeed him and all roads lead to Pat Cummins.

Former captain Greg Chappell believes Steve Smith should be left to concentrate on his batting and the vice is the obvious candidate despite reservations about having.

Another former skipper, Steve Waugh, this week added his voice to the call to give the job to Cummins.

Paine has not played since undergoing surgery on his neck in September, he remains upbeat about his chances but revealed on his SEN morning radio program that he has just begun to train.

“I had a decent keep yesterday, pretty good,” Paine said on Friday. “I had a bit of a dive around yesterday, so I’m a little bit stiff.

“I was going to have a catch with the great Tim Coyle (on Friday), the former Tasmanian coach coming down with the Greater Northern Raiders, so I was going to have a catch with him but I had to pull the pin on that just to give myself a bit of time to rest up, I don’t want to be doing too much back to back days.

“It’s nothing to worry about, just a bit of stiffness after a few months off. I’ve pulled up a bit sore, but yesterday was as I would train normally, so it’s a really good sign that I got through that and I’m looking forward to playing a game of cricket in the coming weeks.”.

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Paine hopes to squeeze in a yet-unannounced Shield game against Western Australia or second XI cricket before going into the Ashes camp next month.

“I’d like to get a club game in, followed by either a second XI or Shield game depending on the timing and how I’ve pulled up from the club game,” he said.

Cummins, who is profiled in The Weekend Australian magazine cover story today, is already vice-captain and considered to be the man most likely.

“It’s a tough job whoever does it, the accepted wisdom had been that it was too hard for wicket keepers but Tim Paine’s done okay,” Chappell told The Australian.

“Bob Willis captain England for a while and he was a bowler like Cummins. Imran Khan did the job for Pakistan.

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“Pat is eminently capable of doing it, it will be challenging for him as a fast bowler and the problem will be that he is unlikely to play every game and bowlers are more likely to breakdown in a match than batsmen but the critical thing is you need a good vice-captain and he will have Smith.

“All captains need good support. The best person for the job should get it and if that’s Pat they should give it to him.”

Chappell says Cummins is also such a good fielder there is no reason he can’t remain close to the wicket.

The legend of Australian cricket has a new book Not Out which was co-written with Daniel Brettig and published by Hardie Grant. In it he counsels against returning to Smith who lost the captaincy after the South African scandal but has made it known he would like to return to the job.

“Steve lives for batting and for the contest with opposition bowlers and captains in a way that is only truly attained by very few. So much so that sometimes it might even detract from his ability to live the rest of his life – certainly that was the impression I got when I saw how wrung out he had become by the time Australia had won the Ashes in Perth in late 2017 (more of which later).

“In a way, Steve does not channel his batting talent; his batting talent channels him.

“That, I think, is a huge factor in any deliberations around whether Steve should return to the Australian captaincy.

“He might appear the best candidate on a few levels, but the question needs to be asked about whether it is in his interests and the team’s interests, because the need to shift focus to the many demands of captaincy will limit his batting and his longevity in the game.

“Not least because as captain, Steve will feel – not initially, but definitely over time – that batting becomes a task to be accomplished rather than a fun challenge to be enjoyed. We saw instances of that during his first stint in leadership, when the joy he experiences while batting seemed to leave him at times. And that is another essential quality for the best of batsmen all through history.”

Waugh also believes that Cummins is the man for the job.

I’d like to see Pat Cummins have an opportunity,” Waugh told SEN. “They say bowlers can’t do it, but they said keepers couldn’t do it.

“I think we have to find out if a bowler can be a captain of Australia. I don’t see why not.”

“I’ve always thought that if he’s bowling the vice-captain could set the field to give him a mental break,” Waugh added.