It has probably been a while since Pat Cummins was last asked who he was wearing.
“Who’s your shirt by?” asked one of the designer set congregated around Australia’s cricket captain. “Good question,” he said, before hoicking up the Test-esque knitted number by the scruff of the neck so he could see the label. “I don’t think it’s expensive. Country Road. There you go.”
Turns out Cummins had done a fashion shoot down at Bondi Pavilion earlier on Monday, really liked the outfits the stylist had brought along to dress him in, and bought the lot.
Which is why, at almost exactly the same time as Australia’s ODI squad for next month’s series against Pakistan was released, he was at a trendy little Italian joint in North Bondi answering queries not about Cameron Green’s surgery or Steve Smith’s request to drop back down the order, but which of the designer glasses on display were his favourites.
One might reasonably assume Cummins would enjoy pressing the flesh with a posse of Dior-clad influencers about as much as playing an Ashes Test at Headingley. But, as the country has learned over the past three years, the 31-year-old never ceases to surprise.
He is, as it turns out, a natural salesman, especially when it comes to Italian eyewear brand Carrera, with whom he was launching the ‘Pat Cummins Selection’.
Pat Cummins rocks a pair of fancy shades at his Carrera collaboration launch in Bondi on Monday.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
The shades got a good trying-on by various pouters and posers in between sips of bubbly refreshments. The man of the hour, meanwhile, presented his “go-tos in the summer” and spoke earnestly about working with the designers to add “little personal twists” such as the unprecedented dark green detailing (a nod to the baggy green, we were told).
The whole scene was so surreal that it almost felt odd to bring up the sport that indirectly got him to this spot.
And perhaps due to the day’s commitments – and possibly uncertainty around the timing of Cricket Australia’s announcement (it fortuitously dropped at the end of proceedings) – Cummins was suitably vague on any points regarding squad matters.
“Yeah, I’ve spoken to him, poor Cam,” he said of Green, who will miss the summer’s Test series against India after opting to have back surgery. It looks like he’s going to miss a bit of cricket. He’s going to be a big loss if he does miss some games.”
Pat Cummins poses with a group of influencers attending his Carrera eyewear collaboration launch.Credit: Emma Kemp
Nineteen-year-old Sam Konstas, meanwhile, “was good” in that Sheffield Shield match and “scoring two hundreds in the same game is not easy”. But “he’s young – I don’t think you need to rush anything”.
Once this delicate dance is done, Cummins pointed out the oddity of this time of year, before the summer calendar is in full swing, but the press have started the hunt for news.
“It’s one of those ones where there’s not much happening day-to-day,” he said. “I do find it funny sometimes when I open up the paper and it’s like: ‘Travis Head firming as favourite to open the batting’. ‘Is he? Okay. Yeah, cool.’
“And then the next day it’ll be some other breaking news. ‘Is that true? I don’t think that’s true.’ It’s like every day something changes.”
Australia captain Pat Cummins on the field.Credit: Getty Images
This vacuum has recently been filled sans Cummins, who has not captained Australia’s one-day squad since winning the World Cup 12 months ago,.
He started back bowling a few weeks ago and spent time in the nets on this morning – before the photo shoot and mingling – in preparation for Australia’s latest tilt at the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
“I was thinking about it the other day,” he said. “It’s close to the only thing I haven’t really ticked off. I’ve not beaten India in a Test series yet. A few of the guys have, but I haven’t.”
That fact alone, left in shakier hands, might be laden with pressure. Even a couple of years ago it might have felt an insurmountable prospect to Cummins, who had not yet disproven some of the external consternation about his suitability as captain by steering the team to the World Test championship, an Ashes defence in the UK and that ODI World Cup triumph against India, in India.
But he has well and truly relaxed into the role, and is now “probably more sure of myself in certain areas”.
”My whole life, you look up to the Australian captain and you know who it is, and you’re like ‘oh wow, they’re so accomplished, and they must have all their shit together’,” he said. “And then suddenly when you are captain you’re like ‘oh, I’m going to be that type of person’.
“In the initial phases, it was awesome that I had loads of support, and those who had to make the decision chose me and thought I was up for it before I even knew I was myself, I suppose. So it was like ‘okay, do I want to try and replicate other people, or do I just want to be myself?’ And I always thought I should be myself because it’s all I really know.”
Just like he is with this very fashionable crowd asking him for fashion advice. “I always go to my wife for some advice, and she always says to go bold,” he told them. “You only live once, so make a statement.”
