The Ashes 2021-22: Joe Root Has Always Been Our Prized Wicket - Pat Cummins
Australian Test captain Pat Cummins asserted that his counterpart, Joe Root, will always be a prized wicket. Root has been in tremendous form in the longest format this year, comfortably outscoring any other batsman in the game.
Ahead of the Ashes series opener at the Gabba, Cummins, who will be the skipper for the first time after Tim Paine’s abrupt halt to captaincy, mentioned that the ‘No.1’ batter in the world is always a big scalp for them.
“I don’t know if the captaincy brings a different element for me, but the last few series we’ve played against him he’s always been our prized wicket. Not necessarily the one we talk about the most, but he’s the number one batter in the world at the minute, he’s their captain. It’s going to be a big battleground for us,” Cummins said.
We feel like Travis Head is ready to go – Pat Cummins
Cummins also revealed the playing XI for the first Test three days before the start of the game. Mitchell Starc retains his spot despite being under the scanner in Tests while Travis Head was chosen over Usman Khawaja for his good form of late.
“Experience is great from Uzzie and we feel really lucky to have that in the squad, but Trav’s been playing a lot for us the last couple of years. He’s gone away and he’s churned out runs in England, here in Australia, and we feel like he’s really ready to go,” Cummins added.
Australia’s playing XI: Marcus Harris, David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.
