Pat Cummins’ elevation to the Australian Test captaincy following Tim Paine’s dramatic resignation immediately raised one key question.
Can a fast bowler be a successful captain?
Historically captaincy has been the domain of the batsman.
Critics of a bowler’s suitability to the role have typically pointed to the gruelling physical demands already imposed upon them.
Despite the concerns, Australia opted against restoring Steve Smith to the top job and instead appointed Australian cricket’s golden boy.
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Cummins will become first bowler to hold the job since Richie Benaud in 1963 and the first pace bowler since Ray Lindwall took charge for a singular match in 1956.
He is the first pure pace bowler to ever captain the Australian side on a permanent basis in the 144 years of Test cricket.
Here, foxsports.com.au breaks down why fast-bowling captains have been so few and far between in the game and how Pat Cummins can break the mould.
CUMMINS’ CAPTAINCY PREDECESSORS
Fast-bowling captains in Test cricket are rare. So rare that, according to Cricinfo, of players to have captained their country in 10 or more Tests, only 4.3 per cent are out-and-out fast men.
Pakistan great Wasim Akram was one of the successful few. He enjoyed what many would consider a successful stint at the helm, leading Pakistan for 25 games, winning 12 and drawing five.
He had an incredible cricket brain when it came to fast bowling and was able to tap into that for his captaincy.
Another whose record stacks up is Shaun Pollock.
The South African legend was an all-rounder but would have made the South African Test team on his bowling ability alone.
He led the side for 26 Tests and won a staggering 14 of those matches with a higher win percentage than famous South African captain Graeme Smith.
Pollock hailed from a family of cricketing legends and became one himself talking 103 wickets during his tenure as captain.
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He averaged 32 with the bat across his 108 total matches as well as taking 421 wickets at an average of 23.11.
Kapil Dev is another example of a somewhat successful fast bowling captain, being voted India’s Cricketer of the century in 2002 ahead of Sachin Tendulkar.
Between 1983 and 1987, Dev captained 34 test matches with a stunning 22 drawn matches.
He won only four games leading his side, losing seven but is best remembered for leading India to victory in the 1983 World Cup.
Andrew Flintoff’s stint at England’s skipper, however is an example of when it went wrong.
While he is considered an all-rounder, his 11 games as captain were some of the worst of his career by his own admission.
“It’s the worst job I’ve ever had,” Flintoff told the Sky Cricket Podcast in 2017.
“You have this idea as a kid, or when you’re playing cricket, that the pinnacle will be captaining England.
“India, when we drew the series out there, was great, but the 5-0 whitewash in Australia was so tough.
“When I was playing well, I found the captaincy easier, because if I felt something needed doing – runs, wickets etc – I could just go out and do it myself.
“But when you’re struggling for form, that’s when the job hits you hard. When you don’t feel you’re contributing towards the side, it’s hard to deliver talks to your team, as they might be thinking ‘well, what are you doing?
“The pressure is another level. As a player, I could go back to my room and switch off at night, but as a captain it was always there.”
Flintoff won only two games from 11 in his captaincy stint, including the 5-0 whitewash in the Ashes series of 2006/07.
More recent test captains who bowl include Darren Sammy and Jason Holder who both led the West Indies since 2010.
While both were considered all-rounders, they also experienced the same struggles Cummins will while on the field, having to manage their troops within overs.
The Captaincy Records
Shaun Pollock: 26 games — 14 wins, 5 losses, 7 draws, 53.84% W/P
Kapil Dev: 34 games — 4 wins, 7 losses, 1 tie, 22 draws, 11.76% W/P
Wasim Akram: 25 games — 12 wins, 8 losses, 5 draws, 48% W/P
Andrew Flintoff: 11 games — 2 wins, 7 losses, 2 draws, 18.18% W/P
Darren Sammy: 30 games — 8 wins, 12 losses, 10 draws, 26.66 W/P
Jason Holder: 37 games — 11 wins, 21 losses, 5 draws, 29.72% W/P
WHAT DO THE EXPERTS SAY?
Before his official appointment on November 27, Cummins had been touted as a potential leader of the side for years, with the first suggestion he could lead the team coming after sandpaper gate in 2018.
Paine’s career was already approaching its natural conclusion and the most recent sexting scandal all but finished any chances of him donning the baggy green ever again.
Speaking ahead of Cummins appointment, Australian great Brett Lee said it was time to allow Steve Smith to lead again after he was stripped of the captaincy in 2018.
“I’d go Steven Smith. I think Steven Smith has earnt his right to lead Australia again,” Lee told foxsports.com.au.
“Could Pat Cummins do it? 100 per cent he could do it and I think he’d do a good job because he’s got a great cricket brain, he’s got a real, real good image, he understands the fundamentals of cricket.
“But I don’t want to put pressure on Pat Cummins. Honestly, it’s too hard for a fast bowler.
“When you’re down at fine leg, that’s your three minutes to zone out. You sort of watch the game, of course, and field, but you can zone out and get your mind fresh again in order to go back in and bowl another four overs in that spell.
“So, it’s taxing on the body, taxing on the mind when you’re looking after yourself. When you’ve got to look after another 10 players it’s a real, real tough job and that’s the reason why the last bowler to do it for Australia was Richie Benaud, who was a spinner.”
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Former test seamer Stuart Clark reflected on his own captaincy stint in 2010/11 for NSW, recounting the struggles of leading a team while having to focus on bowling.
“As captain you’re in the game the whole time,” Clark told The Guardian.
“Normally you can get down to fine leg, have a rest, a drink. But you can’t sleep as captain. You’re the centrepiece, making every decision going, so you get physically and mentally tired. As a batter you can park all that and concentrate when performing your playing role.
“Then there is the off-field stuff, fixing little problems, managing people, selection – you’re involved in every meeting, motivating, acting as counsel. In Test cricket there is also the media demands, ferocious in terms of the demands before each Test, at the toss, after play. In short, there is a lot going on.
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“I did it for a season [2010-11] when Simon Katich was away and the likes of Pat, Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja, David Warner, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood were just coming through. But I think the cricket part will take care of itself in some respects, because Pat is lucky in that those guys are now senior players. Even a guy like Alex Carey [set to make his debut as wicketkeeper] is 30 and has captained before.”
Fox Cricket expert Kerry O’Keeffe, however, referenced Shaun Pollock’s successful stint at the helm for South Africa as a key reason why Cummins could succeed.
“People say, ‘he’s a fast bowler’. But you look back and one of the most successful Test captains, who never gets mentioned, is Shaun Pollock from South Africa,” O’Keeffe told The Back Page.
“His win-loss ratio is incredible, yet he was taking the new ball for South Africa but orchestrating wins as well.
“And I see Pat Cummins doing a similar thing for Australia.”
Cummins, meanwhile, has support across the ditch in counterpart James Anderson who has never been given the top role in his 166 and counting Test matches.
“There are lots of arguments why it would suit to have a bowler as captain, but it’s just not the done thing, is it?” Anderson said to ABC News.
“Captains like to look good at first slip and look like they’re making all the field-position changes and doing all the good stuff. But I’m all for it.”
THE VERDICT
Cummins has been on a path to greatness ever since bursting onto the scene as an 18-years-old and taking an impressive seven wickets on debut against South Africa.
Stress fractures halted his Test career for six years, until he returned in 2017 for India’s tour of Australia.
Cummins has since been a consistent figure in the Australian Test team, standing tall amid the 2018 ball tampering scandal.
The 28-year-old is test cricket’s number one ranked ICC bowler by a decent margin with a ranking of 908, 68 points ahead of India’s Ravi Ashwin in second.
He is a huge presence in the Australian team and a figure his teammates will follow, leading by example time and time again with huge spells in hot Australian summers.
It is precisely this characteristic that former Test star Ed Cowan believes is so appealing.
“I’m excited by this,” Cowan told The Grandstand Cricket podcast.
“It was probably pooh-poohed a little bit when the whole Sandpapergate story went down. I was calling for Pat Cummins to be captain then.
“I’ve got no issue with him being a fast bowler and captaining, for listeners of this podcast, that’s one of the great fallacies [that fast bowlers can’t be captains].
“He’s going to be well supported. I’m excited by the person he is, the cricketer he is. I think he’s going to lead by example on and off the field.”
O’Keeffe, meanwhile, believed Cummins would be the ideal man manager.
“I’d pick Pat Cummins because I think he’s a leader, I think he can get the best out of his team,” explained.
“Overall, I think the players respect him, he knows the way to go, he’ll show the way to go and I think they’ll follow him.”
And if nothing else the old enemy feel the same way.
“Bowlers do think a lot about the game,” James Anderson said.
“We are thinking cricketers now. I think Cummins would be good at it.
“You can see he leads brilliantly in the team. He’s a leader of the bowling attack and you can see he’s got that ability, so why not give him a chance?”
Why not indeed.
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