Australian pace spearhead Pat Cummins on Saturday, April 4, said he felt “nice” that his Test skipper Tim Paine bid his name for future Test captaincy of the national side but feels the topic is just a “moot point” at the moment, as the wicket-keeper is still playing.
Discussions are going on among the Australian cricket fraternities at the moment on who will lead the Kangaroos in Test cricket after the 35-year-old Paine retires, especially with Steve Smith now eligible to do the leadership duty after his captaincy ban ended last month.
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Earlier this week, Paine named Smith, Cummins, Travis Head, Alex Carey and Marnus Labuschagne among the contenders for future Test captaincy. Former Australia captain Michael Clarke is in favor of Cummins – the current Test vice-captain to lead the national side after Paine.
Cummins said he is glad being a vice-captain and to work alongside a “brilliant” captain in Paine while insisting it’s not quite right talking about captaincy now when the keeper is already at the helm.
Cummins was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au: “It's nice to hear, (I) don't think it makes me want it more or less. I'm glad being a vice-captain underneath him that I get that nod. He's brilliant.”
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The fast-bowler added, “Like I've said a hundred times before, I kind of feel it's not quite right talking about captaincy now when we've got someone like Painey and Finchy (limited-overs captain Aaron Finch) doing great jobs. We'll see down the track, but at the moment it's a bit of a moot point.”
The 26-year-old ICC Test Cricketer of the Year 2019, who is leading the Australian pace attack having taken 143 wickets from 30 Tests despite injuries hampering his career, has no captaincy experience at the domestic level.
Cummins signed off by saying, “In the perfect world, your first experience of being captain - say Australian captain, you've (already) had quite a bit of experience leading and you know exactly what it entails. But things don't always work out as exactly as you planned.”
(With cricket.com.au Inputs)
