Instead of knuckling down and trying to save the series against India, Aussie skipper Pat Cummins‘ dismissal was described as ‘disgusting’, ‘rubbish’ and ‘pathetic’.
After the side’s Nagpur nightmare in the first Test came the Delhi disaster; and the captain was right in the thick of it.
Australia started day three just one wicket down with a second innings lead of 62. It seemed like victory in India was well within grasp, and the side was heavily favoured with the bookies to get the job done thanks to a brilliant start by stand-in opener Travis Head.
Then came one of the most disastrous collapses (9/52) an Australian cricket side has ever seen – only two in 146 years of Tests have been worse in a third innings – as each batter continued to make the same mistake as the one proceeding him.
But it was Cummins who came in for the worst criticism of them all with stinging rebukes from several greats of the game.
A dejected Pat Cummins leads the Aussie side off Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi after a disgraceful batting collapse with victory in sight saw the side lose inside three days
As the side was crumbling, and the sweep shots from batters got more outlandish and unnecessary, Cummins strode to the wicket with the team having lost 4-10 in the space of just five overs.
On the face of it, the side’s captain, who has one of the better techniques in the side (though his average continues to nosedive), should have been the perfect man to right the ship and keep the tail wagging.
Instead, Cummins took a wild swipe across the line, with his attempting slog sweep on his first ball unsurprisingly failing, and leaving his stumps in disarray.
The legendary Michael Hussey, who never gave up his wicket without a fight, was in disbelief at what he had just seen.
‘That’s just a horrible shot from the captain. He’s thought ‘I’m just going to get a quick 30′ to change the momentum of the game and get our lead up as much as we could,’ he said on the Fox Sports broadcast.
Brendon Julian agreed, flummoxed that the skipper would even attempt such a low percentage and outlandish shot.
‘That’s terrible. I don’t know what he was thinking Pat Cummins. First ball, I reckon he just thought ‘I’m going to be positive’ and panicked,’ he said.
Despite it being his first ball, and the side already having lost 4-10 in the space of a few overs, Pat Cummins attempted this wild slog sweep that was described by some as a ‘disgusting’ display of leadership
Indian players celebrate as Cummins falls for a golden duck
It’s gotten even worse for Cummins, who is flying back home to Australia to deal with a family illness – though he will return for the next Test in Indore on March 1.
An important reminder that cricket is not the be all and end all for the lives of our Aussie cricketers.
But as captain of his country – and earning a very hefty salary – questions are being asked by cricket legends over his leadership of the ailing side.
The polished 29-year-old quick ticks a lot of the boxes for a role often described as the second-most important job in Australia, outside of the Prime Minister.
Brilliant fast bowler? Tick. Savvy media performer? Tick. Admired by teammates? Tick. Marketable good looks? Double tick.
But many former greats of the game, while acknowledging Cummins’ enormous skill as a bowler, aren’t so sure of some facets of his leadership in the wake of the Nagpur nightmare and Delhi disaster.
Master tactician? Not sure. Leading from the front? Not if the Delhi dismissal is anything to go by.
Pat Cummins, pictured with wife Becky at the recent Allan Border Medal, is as polished as it gets when it comes to the off-field duties of captaincy…but legends are questioning whether his on-field credentials are cutting the mustard at the moment
Cummins remained calm when addressing the media after the side’s calamitous collapse – but tense body language showed he knows the side is under-fire after two poor Tests
Ex-captain Michael Clarke was scathing of Cummins’ leadership and tactics in the wash-up of the implosion.
‘I’ve got to say, I’m not sure what happened with our tactics either. We had 100 runs on the board, at one stage Pat Cummins had four blokes on the boundary,’ he said on his Sky Sports Radio program.
‘You’re either bowling India out for under 100, or you’re losing. If you lose in 20 overs or you lose in two days, it’s irrelevant.
‘So fielders get up, (put a) bat-pad off side, bat-pad leg side, slip. If the ball turns, if the ball bounces, if the ball shoots along the ground, if you make an error in judgment, you are getting out. That’s what Australia had to do.
‘We had mid-off back, mid-on back, deep point, deep square-leg — what was I watching?’ asked an incredulous Clarke.
You see it wasn’t about the defeat and the collapse so much as the WAY it all came about.
All the shots looked to fans like a lack of care in protecting their wickets, and using a very low-percentage tactic of hitting against the spin on a pitch, and against bowlers, that the tactic didn’t suit at all.
And even when it became apparent it wasn’t working, the batters just kept doing it – perhaps led by their captain’s example.
Fans, pundits and former greats could not contain their disgust at the manner of Cummins’ dismissal when the team needed him most.
One questioned whether it was the worst shot ever played by an Australian captain given the circumstances, while other descriptions of the poor shot ranged from ‘disgusting’ to ‘rubbish’ to ‘pathetic’.
‘What the actual F**K was that shot from Pat Cummins? Your team has lost 3-0 in ten deliveries and first ball you try a dirty great slog. That is not the shot of a captain, that is pathetic. F***ing idiot,’ one particularly enraged fan wrote.
Other fans questioned whether Cummins was more concerned with his many commitments and climate-aligned beliefs off the field.
Some even pointed to the fact they were playing in Delhi, where pollution has seen the city have the worst air quality in the world.
That being said, Cummins is indispensable to the team.
He will likely go down as one of Australia’s greatest-ever fast bowler and has alerady taken 217 Test wickets from 49 matches at an average of just 21.5.
He clearly holds huge sway when it comes to Cricket Australia – so much so Justin Langer finds himself at home in Perth instead of coaching the side in India despite his stellar track record.
But at the end of the day, the success of a captain will be measured on what they can deliver on the field. And the culture they can instill within the cricket-adoring Australian public, who are famously quick to turn on a side they don’t feel fits with the traditional sporting values Down Under.
The passionate Indian press has been far more brutal on Cummins and his men.
‘But just how bad are Australia? As the visitors lost the Delhi Test inside three days, the image of the famed Australian fighting spirit stood shattered,’ wrote Ashish Megotra for the Hindustan Times.
Pat Cummins’ bowling skill is not in question – but is he the right man to lead the Australian cricket side?
‘This isn’t an Australian team that fights. Rather, this is a team that rolls over and lets the opposition breeze past.’
So how will Cummins turn the sinking ship around?
He has always oozed a calm and unflappable demeanour, but looked anything but during his golden duck, which commentators called ‘panicked’.
Cummins was back to his polished best when addressing the media after the match, seemingly quite unphased about needing to bounce back from one of the worst innings in Australian Test history.
‘I thought they bowled really well, it’s not easy out there, but perhaps some guys went away from their methods,’ he said.
‘Each batter has their own way to go about it. I don’t think there’s any one size fits all rule. Unfortunately, quite a few of us got out with kind of cross-batted shots which might not be our preferred method.’
At least Cummins, Andrew McDonald and the side have 10 days to figure out how they can salvage something from a series that was lost in just six days – there is an ICC World Test Championship on the line still, after all.