He Led From Example - Tom Moody In Awe Of Pat Cummins' Leadership In ICC World Cup 2023 Final

Former Australian cricketer Tom Moody was impressed by Pat Cummins’ leadership in the final of the ICC World Cup 2023. He praised him for the tactical changes he made and also hailed him for setting the staggering field placements.

Australian skipper Pat Cummins has become the talk of the town after his side thrashed India by 7 wickets in the final of the ICC World Cup 2023. He has received a lot of praise for his staggering leadership in the summit clash and that potentially was why his team emerged victorious.

Pat Cummins made brilliant bowling changes and was spot-on with his field placements. With the way he rotated, his bowlers were something to cherish. He had done his homework perfectly and it seemed that he had plans for every Indian player.

Tom Moody hailed Pat Cummins for his exceptional leadership and believes that he had his best game tactically as a leader. He highlighted how he used his part-timers. Speaking to ESPNCricinfo, he explained:

“A brilliant batting performance, brilliant fielding performance. I think Pat Cummins probably had his best game tactically as a captain. I felt there’s a lot to like about what happened in the first half of the game from Australia’s point of view. He led from example.

“When he came into the attack, the Indian captain, opposition captain was up and running and flying and he led his nerve from a bowling perspective and he managed to sort of out some sort of squeeze on in the early parts of his spell. I felt the way he rotated his bowlers, how he brought the part-time bowling of Head and Marsh in for two overs each. I think between them, they only went for 9 runs for those four overs.”

“There’s a number of things that I felt that he was very clever in the way he did it,” Tom Moody praises Pat Cummins

Tom Moody was also in awe of how Pat Cummins rotated Mitchell Starc. He highlighted how the fast bowler used him when the ball was reverse-swinging. He added:

“And the way that he rotated Starc. When the ball started to reverse, he got Starc back in there and Starc took some critical wickets. When he obviously saw that the ball was getting a bit worn and Starc is one of the modern-day greats when it comes to reverse swing of that white ball.”

Tom Moody further pointed out how Pat Cummins assessed the pitch quickly and set up the field for his fellow fast bowlers. He explained:

“There’s a number of things that I felt that he was very clever in the way he did it. The other aspect is that I thought the astute field placing that he had. He recognized very quickly that the pitch itself was very slow and the way he set up the leg side field for his fast bowlers and got them to bowl into the pitch with the changing of pace, I thought was again a bit of tactical masterstroke.”

Pat Cummins was spot on his bowling and he provided his team with crucial breakthroughs and put India under tremendous pressure. The captain removed Shreyas Iyer and Virat Kohli, which potentially put India on the back foot.