Australia currently hold the ODI World Cup trophy and the World Test Championship mace. And these two ICC trophies came under the leadership of Pat Cummins, with a similar set of players. Interestingly, Australia beat India in the finals of the respective formats in a span of six months to win these two titles. Cummins has already established himself as one of the best captains with these two ICC titles, but the biggest question for him will be whether to retain them at the top.
Well, Australia have always been dominant in the ODI and test formats. They won the ODI World Cup in India in November, and they are also doing well in the ongoing WTC championship to qualify for the finals and get a chance to defend the WTC mace. But with David Warner already retired and some veteran players like Nathan Lyon or Usman Khawaja in the final phase of their careers, how long can he take them along?
Pat Cummins is hopeful of taking the test team ahead for a few more years
Australia have back-to-back home assignments coming up when they host India and England in a test series at home. Hence, after the retirement of Warner, Australian fans don’t want to see a few more players retiring in the coming time. The veteran off-spinner Nathan Lyon recently missed a few test matches due to injury, but he said that he has the Ashes 2027 in mind.
In a recent interview with ESPN Cricinfo on Friday, ahead of the release of The Test – Season 3 on Prime Video, Cummins said he has in mind situations where there might be some retirements. However, he said, “Think we are lucky in that everyone has gone a couple of years longer than we’d have first hoped. Hopefully it’s the same with Nath.” He added that they are trying to ensure Lyon plays as little as possible to make him play for another few years.
Notably, only Cameron Green and Marcus Labuschagne are under 30 in the current Australian test side. Furthermore, he also said that with a lot of white-ball cricket being played, it gives the test players some amount of rest. Cummins also talked about the success they had last year in the test. They levelled the Ashes series in England 2-2, retained the trophy, and also won the WTC title.
Pat Cummins on his tenure as Australian Captain
However, the Australian captain has not told about his captaincy tenure, but head coach Andrew McDonald indicated that he was looking for four years, so that might be the timeframe for Cummins as a captain. The first two years as Australian captain have been superb for him, and he is hopeful that the remaining two years can also be similar.
He said, “I’d love if the second half was as successful as the first half. I’ve been pretty open to saying I don’t think I’ll do this forever. Feel really well-placed at the moment. Feel like we are in a really good spot, so it’s certainly not imminent.”