By Malcolm Conn
Pat Cummins has admitted his bowling was off, but played a straight bat to questions of captaincy after Australia retained the Ashes with a washed out draw in the fourth Test at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Rarely could the Ashes have been secured in more hollow circumstances, with almost two days of rain saving Australia from what appeared certain defeat, raising questions about whether Cummins had lost control as captain.
“As a bowler, it’s frustrating that I didn’t bowl very well at all, not up to the standards I try and keep myself to,” Cummins admitted.
Pat Cummins has come under scrutiny, with questions raised about whether he had lost control as captain.Credit:
“In terms of captaincy, I think there has been a few of those moments where the (England) batters have played well, the game moves very quickly. We knew coming into this series they were probably going to have a couple of days where it went their way and the game moves really quickly, so it was one of those days.
“It’s tough, frustrating, but that’s cricket. We’ve been on the other side of it plenty of times.”
Despite being robbed of victory by the weather, England have only themselves to blame for being on the wrong side of history.
The Ashes remain in Australia’s hands thanks to a 2-1 series lead. England needed to win the series to regain the Ashes so even victory at the Oval in the final Test, beginning on Thursday, would only draw the series 2-2. Should Australia win, it will be their first series success in England for 22 years.
It could have been so different. England were in charge of the first Test at Edgbaston before the cult of Bazball resulted in an overoptimistic declaration and reckless batting. This opened the door for Australia to snatch a dramatic two-wicket win and control the series.
All England captain Ben Stokes would say is “no, not really” when asked if his greatest disappointment was going 2-0 down in the series after also losing at Lord’s by 43 runs.
Despite his disappointment with the washout after dominating the match, Stokes rebuffed suggestions Test matches should have reserve days, and also rejected the notion that the Ashes should not be retained in the event of a drawn series.
“We did literally everything we possibly could and sometimes Mother cricket ... the weather didn’t help us, we can’t change that,” Stokes said. “It’s a tough pill to swallow, knowing that’s the reason we sit here with a draw. But we’ve done everything we possibly could in the hours of play we managed to get. We were completely and utterly dominant throughout the hours of play we had. It’s a shame but, oh well.”
Cummins admitted there would be a full-scale postmortem over how England were able to score so freely, making 592 in just 107 overs. That included 178 at more than seven an over during the second session of day two, when player of the match Zak Crawley was on the charge, hammering 189 in just 182 balls.
Needless to say the Australians bowled poorly to him, allowing Crawley to score most of his runs on the leg side when he has a clear weakness outside off stump playing overzealous drives. This explains why his batting average has just tipped from the high 20s into the low 30s after 38 Tests.
Umpires Nitin Menon (l) and Joel Wilson talk to England captain Ben Stokes after they deem the light on Saturday not good enough to continue with fast bowlers.Credit:
“It certainly felt like they were in control at some stages,” Cummins said with some understatement. “I wouldn’t say that’s overly uncommon, no matter who the opponent is. It’s about trying to make those moments as short as possible and wrestle back some kind of control.
“That two-hour block in the middle session wasn’t our best. We tried to throw a few different plans at them and maybe on another day they work, a couple of the edges carry through or some of the catches go to hand, but I thought they batted well. I was pretty proud of the end of that day. We were able to wrestle back some of that control.
“We’ll have a look and work through things with the coaches,” Cummins said. “The question marks are always when do you try and increase the tempo, when do you rein it in? When do you look to create something out of nothing or when do you just feel like you can hold on hoping a wicket might come through that way.”
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