On cusp of new era, Pat Cummins promises 'collaborative approach' in captaincy for Australia

Both Patrick Cummins and Cricket Australia have broken a sort of unspoken glass ceiling by the appointment of the former as the next captain of the Australian Test side. 

Cummins has become the first pace bowling captain in the last six decades and only the second bowler to become the full-time captain after the legendary Richie Benaud.

Cummins was a long-time deputy to the last captain Tim Paine who has walked into oblivion after taking an indefinite break from the game and has promised a “bit different” style of leadership from the previous leaders.

He talked of bringing a “collaborative approach” to his captaincy where he will lean on each and every member of the side to own up to their roles and responsibility towards the Australian Test team. 

“I'm naturally quite a calm person. I'm quite positive. I'll be leaning on everyone. I'm a big one for empowering individuals to own their role (in the team). It's going to be a real collaborative approach. It might look a bit different from the outside compared to captain's of the past, which is great,” Cummins said in his first media briefing as the skipper of the Australia Test team.

Bowlers, particularly, pace bowlers are not generally considered to be a good fit for the captaincy role because of their workload and subsequent management where they miss some games as part of rotation plans. Australia have been a vocal supporter of the rotation strategy for their quick bowlers and Cummins himself ruled last month that it would be a surprise for him if any of the bowlers will play all the five Tests of the Ashes series. 

However, he had also indicated that he would seek rest only as a last option and now having been named captain of the side, there is a high chance he would play all the Tests against England, in the same manner he played in the last Ashes series in 2019. Cummins said that he has not asked for rest from the longest form of the game since his return to the format and it is highly unlikely that he would start resting from now on, more so as he has been named the leader of the side.

“I very much doubt that I will rest from Test cricket. I have never rested from a game of Test cricket before, so I doubt that will start now,” Cummins asserted.

The first Test of the Ashes series is scheduled to start on December 08 at the Gabba in Brisbane.