Pat Cummins: Australian cricket’s man of the moment

Pat Cummins isn’t just the No.1 fast bowler in Test cricket, he’s smart, green and a marketer’s dream. Will he be the next captain?

Former cricketer turned commentator Brett Geeves recently summed up the popular perception around fast bowlers: “As a collective, we bowlers aren’t known for our scholarly endeavours. We simply don’t have the intellectual chops to be the skipper. We aren’t handsome enough. Clean enough. We are naturally abrasive, angry, and mad.”

If any bowler can smash those perceptions for six, it’s Pat Cummins. As well as being the world’s top Test fast bowler with an eye on the captaincy, he’s also a gun at cryptic crosswords, has a keen interest in Indigenous history, is pushing cricket to go green and knows which cryptocurrencies have the smallest carbon footprint. As journalist Peter Lalor writes in today’s profile: “Cummins is, in every respect, the new-age cricketer.”