Pat Cummins answers critics with one of greatest Ashes captain displays

I n the moment after striking the winning boundary at Edgbaston, Pat Cummins looked to have taken his celebration cues from Usman Khawaja. Charging down the pitch for a second run that became obsolete as the ball ricocheted into the rope, he embarked on the turning circle of a semi-trailer back towards Nathan Lyon at the far end and started throwing his gear away as he went. Bat? Didn’t need that any more. Bear hug? That was far more pressing.

It was emotion bursting out in its purest form, something instinctive. “I can’t really remember any of it, to be honest,” he told BBC radio, eyes and mind and limbic system still adjusting after the adrenaline bath of those final overs. On one part, though, he was very clear. “Never thought of a draw,” he said about the over when he clubbed two sixes off Joe Root, dynamiting the target down to 37, making the chase seem possible again after Alex Carey’s wicket.

If there was intensity in the finish, there was a tempering of it through most of the lead-up. As the partnership with Lyon came through its dicey early stages and solidified, Cummins kept flashing a smile at his longtime teammate, reassuring him with word and gesture, making it seem like this spectacle that had its onlookers in agony could be fun in the middle of the crucible. Perhaps it was. The people waiting outside the lion’s den may have spent a more anxious night than Daniel.

As captain, Cummins has been all about equanimity. After Australia had been smashed by India in Nagpur in February he was as breezy as possible, speaking of disappointment, but also enjoyment at a challenge to take on. After the next defeat in Delhi, he wasn’t there, already heading to the airport to get home to his family.

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