If it wasn’t quite the flurry that surrounded his snap withdrawal from the Adelaide Ashes Test as a COVID-19 close contact a year ago, Pat Cummins’ quad complaint still caused plenty of action as Australia sought to close out the West Indies in Perth.
Immediately, the Australians had to hand over on-field leadership responsibilities to the vice-captain, Steve Smith, who marshalled the bowlers in the session after lunch.
Cummins and the coach Andrew McDonald, spotted in consultation with each other before the captain declared Australia’s second innings during the break, had to weigh up with the team physio Nick Jones how much risk should be considered for his bowling return.
Current and potential leaders? Pat Cummins, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and David Warner.Credit:Getty
Australia may well need Cummins in the fourth innings of this match, but to use him would be to heighten the chances he will not be available for the second Test of the series in Adelaide.
At the same time, reserve paceman Scott Boland needed to be raised from a state of readiness to a preparation for playing the next game. Smith, too, had to ponder the possibility of leading Australia for a whole Test match from Thursday.
All these machinations served to emphasise how, for all Cummins’ many leadership qualities, his defining role as a fast bowler is undeniably the most demanding and physically risky in cricket.
And despite an exceptional record for durability since he returned to the team for his second Test in 2017, six injury-addled years after a memorable debut in Johannesburg, Cummins is no less susceptible to these risks than others.
Each of Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood have had their misadventures through injury over the years. In 2019 and again last summer, Hazlewood suffered a muscle strain injury early in the Test schedule that cost him two matches or more.
But as captain of the men’s Test and now one-day teams, the premium placed on Cummins to remain fit and firing is as high as it has ever been for a fast bowler – whenever he is absent Australia have to replace not just one role, but two.
During his extended batting slump in 1996 and 1997, Mark Taylor came to be considered an allrounder of sorts, offering the tools of run-making, slips catching and captaincy. In the latter days of his white ball tenure, Aaron Finch was retained largely for his tactical nous in the field.
Cummins, who has also been working assiduously on his batting in the lead-up to these Tests in search of lower order runs, has similar, multifaceted value.
Even as they appointed Cummins to the white ball role after Finch’s retirement, the selectors George Bailey, McDonald and Tony Dodemaide have been working quietly behind the scenes to “broaden the base” of leaders across formats.
Opportunities have been sought and found for numerous players who have not previously led Australia. Hazlewood was captain for an ODI against England at the SCG, and other players including Adam Zampa, Alex Carey and Mitch Marsh have been identified for further leadership training.
Though currently a long way from Test match calculations, Zampa’s emergence as a leader of substance may well continue by replacing Glenn Maxwell as captain of the Melbourne Stars during the Big Bash League.
Then there is David Warner and the convoluted process for his return to consideration for leadership. Bailey has been firm in his view that he and his fellow selectors will not be including Warner in any leadership discussions until he is eligible to be considered: a determination still to be made by an independent panel of conduct code commissioners.
And while white ball captaincy considerations for series in India, South Africa and then a World Cup in India next year may seem a long way from the circumstances of a Test match against the West Indies in Perth, all roads lead back to the same trick: keeping Cummins fit and firing for the string of major assignments to come over the next 12 months.
Retaining the wider view will be challenging at times for Australia, especially on afternoons like this one, when Kraigg Brathwaite and Tagenarine Chanderpaul built a partnership that was crying out for a Cummins special like the one he’d found for the West Indies captain on day three.
