This was published 1 year ago
‘If he plays it’ll be a miracle’: Party boy Head unlikely for T20 clash
By Billie Eder and Carla Jaeger
As far as captaincies go, Pat Cummins has had one of the most successful and gruelling years on record.
By August, the 30-year-old already had a World Test Championship win under his belt and retained the Ashes on enemy turf.
But arriving at Sydney airport on Wednesday morning, two days after Australia’s World Cup triumph, Cummins declared the victory in India was a highlight of his career.
“Every half-an-hour or so you kind of remember that we just won the World Cup, and get excited all over again,” he said.
“We’re still buzzing, it’s been an awesome couple of days, and we’ll be smiling for a fair while.
“As captain, there’s always things you do that sometimes don’t pay off, and sometimes they do pay off, and I was pretty pumped to win the other day.
Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins arrives back in Sydney after his World Cup victory.Credit: Rhett Wyman
“Career highlight. Captaincy aside, this is the pay-off, playing with these boys. It doesn’t get any better than that.”
Even Cummins admitted they were a long shot at the title after suffering losses to India and South Africa in their first two matches of the tournament.
“Yeah, to be honest, it almost become sudden death really,” he said.
“We thought we pretty much had to be flawless from there on in [after losses] just to make the semis, and we pretty much were.
Australia celebrate their World Cup victory.Credit: Getty
“We started to find ways to win, even when we weren’t having our best day. Before the tournament, we knew playing ODI cricket in India is a pretty tough assignment, so just to make the semis we were pretty pumped, but then obviously keen to go a bit further.
“The belief never left, even at the start we knew we hadn’t played our best, but we kind of knew once we clicked we could take on anyone, and that proved to be the case.”
Most of the Australian ODI team have made their way back to Australia for a few weeks’ rest ahead of the home summer, while Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, Adam Zampa, Josh Inglis and Marcus Stoinis prepare for a five-game T20 series in India starting on November 24.
But all-rounder Mitch Marsh cast doubt on Head’s availability for the opening T20 matches, questioning whether he would be fit to play due to the team’s ongoing victory celebrations.
“I’m no selector or coach but if he plays that game it’ll be a miracle,” Marsh said on arrival in Melbourne on Wednesday morning.
The 32-year-old Marsh celebrated the victory ahead of his return to Australia, marked by a now iconic photo of him resting his feet on the top of the World Cup trophy.
“It’s got a bit of legs that photo, hasn’t it? Pardon the pun.”
Marsh was unaware he had copped criticism in some quarters for the photo.
Mitch Marsh arrives back in Melbourne on Wednesday morning.Credit: Jason South
“Am I?” he asked. “I haven’t seen a lot, but there you go.”
After following in the footsteps of his father Geoff, who scored 428 runs in Australia’s 1987 World Cup victory, Mitch said it was “amazing” to have his father watch on in India.
“It was 40 years ago that Dad won in India, and to follow in his footsteps is pretty crazy. To have him there, and celebrate winning World Cups – he’s a past player, so always love having those guys in the change rooms. It was awesome.”
The Australian summer kicks off with a Test series against Pakistan starting on December 14 in Perth, but Cummins said they would take some time to soak in the year before the team regroups in a few weeks.
“We’ll savour this for a long time, I’m sure the stories will keep rolling on for a while,” he said.
“Home summer is always huge, so we’ve got a couple of weeks to regroup and get together.
“[The] majority of the ODI team is the same as the Test team, so it will be good to see everyone again in a couple of weeks, but we’ll keep savouring this for a little while I reckon.”
Australia T20 squad: Matthew Wade (c), Aaron Hardie, Jason Behrendorff, Sean Abbott, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Tanveer Sangha, Matt Short, Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa.
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