Pat Cummins breaks the mould of typical Aussie skipper, hopefully this job doesn’t break him

It’s no fault of Pat Cummins that the succession of a new Australian Test captain was not the celebration it might have been.

Newly-appointed Australian Test captain Pat Cummins in Brisbane.

By rights, the succession of a new Australian Test captain should be an occasion to celebrate, the fulfilment of a lifetime’s ambition, the commencement of a new era.

It’s no fault of Pat Cummins that Friday did not quite feel like such an event.

Perhaps as a cricket-crazy youth, Cummins fantasised of leading his country on to the field in an Ashes series.

But even a fortnight ago he would hardly have imagined the journey beginning with a Zoom press conference from a quarantine hotel just hours after his predecessor Tim Paine announced a “leave of absence from all forms of cricket for the foreseeable future”, in the wake of a tabloid expose of a squalid interlude predating his three-and-a-half-year tenure.

As for vice-captain Steve Smith, having like Paine vacated the job in tears in 2018, he was sitting alongside Cummins in the role of Lazarus with a triple bypass, on a dialysis machine, with a couple of prostheses.

Unceremoniously sacked after the infamy of Newlands, Smith is now a hammy, a stress fracture or even just a rotation away from what would be a unique second term as Australian captain. As ever, Cummins spoke well: appreciatively of his “unexpected privilege”, and considerately of his predecessor, to whom he had spoken throughout the week, including Friday morning. “Yeah, I’ve been chatting with Tim,” said Cummins. “Yeah, the whole way … I guess I’ll start by saying just we really feel for Tim and his family. He’s just a really loved, well-respected leader for our team.” A little slip into the present tense there, as though Paine was still in charge, Cummins still deputy.

“He’s been incredible for me. Especially since being vice-captain. He’s been someone who has really looked after me, who I’ve learned a lot off, and that’s consistent with all the boys and the staff up here.

“We really feel for Tim and what he’s going through. We love him, we hope we see him back in the team soon and just wish him all the best.”

No, Cummins was “not overly comfortable” with the idea of cricketers needing to be moral exemplars, that “a lot of the pressure to be perfect is unreasonable”, and that the intolerance of failure “sends a bad message”.

Hearing this from the colleague he rather winningly referred to as “Patrick”, Smith nodded vigorously.

For his own part, Smith was resigned to an undertone of disapproval about his restoration to the leadership.

“I think there will be some negativity from some people around it, I understand that and get it,’ said Smith. “For me I know I’ve grown a great deal the last three or four years. I’m a more well-rounded individual and it’s turned me into a better leader.”

Yes, Australia’s 47th Test captain is the first pace bowler since Ray Lindwall’s one-off Test on the way home from England in 1956, which some have treated like their first sighting of a bunyip. Then again, nobody thought a keeper could do the job until Paine.

Cummins is also the tallest office holder (193cm) since Hugh Trumble in 1902 and the best educated (UTS Bachelor of Business) since Mark Taylor (UNSW Bachelor of Surveying) in 1999, while his people are Catholic, which would once have been nearly a disqualification – Australia had only one Catholic captain between Percy McDonnell in the 1880s and Lindsay Hassett in the 1950s.

Cummins is also not married to Becky Boston, mother of seven-week-old Albie, which will make him the first unwed father to occupy the position (so far, at least, as we know). Dangerously risque, perhaps, for those who would prefer, to be on the safe side, to have appointed a Ken doll.

As we watched the Cummins-Smith ticket begin, it was hard not to wonder how it might conclude.

From Hughes and Border to Smith and Paine, the captaincy has been drawn to some sad ends. Ricky Ponting went out in a strop, Michael Clarke in a deserted funk. Nobody should think that Australia’s Test captaincy is the second most important job in the country – that’s an advertising slogan at best.

But it is a job with an unfortunate knack of breaking its holders.