Australia Test captain Pat Cummins said that he is open to sharing the ODI captaincy duties with David Warner and he feels that the left-handed opener will be an awesome captain.
The Kangaroos will be looking for a new ODI captain post the T20 World Cup after Aaron Finch called time on his 50-over career recently. This has to be done with just a year left for the ICC ODI World Cup in 2023 which will be played in India.
Cummins acknowledged that multi-format players like him could not play every match and saw the logic in having a captaincy committee and dividing the role. And the pacer said that he was open to doing the captaincy in ODIs on a rotational basis with someone like David Warner.
“(It is) something I’d be open to. Playing every single game isn’t realistic. It would be really seamless if you had a committee. The style of just about everyone in the team is really similar. We’ve got some great leaders in the team, we all get along great,” Cummins said on the eve of Australia’s T20 World Cup warm-up match against India.
David Warner was banned from leadership duties in Australian cricket after his involvement in the 2018 Cape Town Test ball-tampering scandal. However, Cricket Australia and David Warner have had talks about ending that ban given that it has been four years now.
“There’s a few barriers at the moment, but certainly if they were removed, there wouldn’t be any qualms from any of the playing or coaching group. He’d be awesome at it,” Cummins added.
Cummins said the feisty opener has been a valuable member of the side.
“He’s a leader around our group. Always has been, always will be. He’s someone in the Test side I lean on a lot. If things change, I’m sure he would be someone you would strongly consider to step up if needed,” he said.
(Reuters inputs)
