I Feel Like I’ve Stayed More Engaged: Pat Cummins On Leading New South Wales In Sheffield Shield

Champion fast bowler and the No.1 ranked Test pacer in the world Pat Cummins has said that he has experienced a renewed sense of life and energy on the fielder while leading New South Wales in the ongoing Sheffield Shield fixtures.

With Australia looking to stock up their leadership prospects as Test captain Tim Paine nears the end of his career, Pat Cummins has emerged as the frontrunner in taking over from the Tasmanian stumper.

Cummins has led New South Wales in the last two Shield games, both of which have ended up in comfortable victories for the Blues.

“I feel like I’ve stayed more engaged and really trying to work with the other guys to see how we can take wickets and, so far, I feel like that’s helped me, if anything, rather than hindered,” Pat Cummins told foxsports.com.au.

“It’s mainly just been the cricket, I guess, that’s been new [returning to domestic cricket following the abandoned South Africa tour],” Cummins added.

But Pat Cummins had admitted that due to the presence of the likes of David Warner, Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, and Moises Henriques, his job has been relatively stress-free.

“And to be honest, it’s been pretty stress-free. We’ve had two games, two good wins. One day matches where we’ve got five main bowlers, so managing who bowls, when and where have been quite easy, and having people like Moises, Steve and Davey around have made it really easy,” admitted Cummins.

Leading a team for a fast bowler can be a tough job and while Cummins accepts that trepidation around it, he has found it ‘absolutely easy’ so far.

“I think the trepidation just comes from workload management,” he added. “Your main role is as a bowler and trying to have an impact and you don’t want anything to take away from that. But so far, in the small little taste that I’ve had, I’ve found it absolutely easy,” said Cummins.

Pat Cummins backs under-fire Tim Paine to lead Australia in Ashes 2021

The discussion around Pat Cummins being a potential Australian captain has increased after Tim Paine’s struggles as a keeper as well as a leader during the eventual Test series loss on home soil against India.

Cummins accepted that Australia wasn’t quite at their best against a very good Indian team but he alluded to the fact that the side under Tim Paine retained Ashes on English soil besides having a spotless run at home against New Zealand and Pakistan in the 2019 summer and that there is no need to set the heads rolling after just one poor summer.

“I think the majority of our side is the one that brought home the Ashes 18 months ago and didn’t lose a game all summer last year against New Zealand and Pakistan. I think we’ve got the right players, we just didn’t have our best summer against India, but I think lessons were learned,” he said.

“As bowlers, there was a couple of times we had the chance to win the game on day five and we didn’t take them. As a fielding unit, we probably dropped a lot of vital catches that could have been the difference in the series,” said Cummins.

“And in terms of our runs scored, we pride ourselves in Australia going big, 400 runs plus, and we just didn’t do that this series. There’s a few things that when we’re playing our best are non-negotiables that we do really well and we just didn’t do them well against a really good Indian side.” Pat Cummins signed off.

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