Pat Cummins loses cool but not threat as Australia’s attack excels again

Y ou really don’t see Pat Cummins lose his rag. His whole deal is staying level, taking the Rudyard Kipling approach to triumph and disaster. Quick to smile and to recommend the perspective that cricket is a good time, not a cause for grievance.

Take his Pakistan trip in 2022. A month guarded by an army. Fifteen days of Test grind, still 0-0 into the final day. Cummins reminding his team about carrying on with patience, about resisting frustration on moribund pitches. Then, on that 15th day, the pace and energy of his final spells, his three wickets vital to making that drawn score a win.

It stood out, then, on the third day of the World Test Championship final in London, when Shardul Thakur played a forward defensive stroke to end the 60th over, and Cummins booted the ball towards slip. Enough close calls and enough riding on them, and frustration can break through.

You can understand why. On the previous day, Cummins had India’s No 5, Ajinkya Rahane, lbw, then had it overturned for overstepping the crease. Rahane was not out at stumps. Cummins didn’t review a not-out lbw favouring Ravindra Jadeja, but that one would also have hit the stumps and was also found to be a no-ball. Jadeja was on four and went on to 48.

In the first over of the third day, Scott Boland smashed up KS Bharat’s stumps with a perfect delivery off the seam, then had Thakur dropped at third slip. Cummins started his work at the far end by jagging balls inwards, then straight, then short, beating Thakur in one over, beating him up in the next. He hit India’s lower‑order smasher twice on the arm, once on the glove, and beat his edge again. It looked as if Thakur’s day would be done shortly.

On cue Cummins’s third over brought the length ball, the