There’s a very un-Australian feeling when you’re resting your captain mid-summer in the middle of an Ashes series. This rivalry was established through battered and broken bodies, hurt pride, and fast bowlers who refused to walk off until they were carried off. But that’s all changed; Pat Cummins, Australia’s number one bowler and captain, has been ruled out for the last two Test matches, not because he cannot play, but because Australia won too quickly.
Returning to the field in Adelaide after suffering from a back stress injury for the initial 2 Tests, Cummins sealed Australia’s 3-0 series lead, and then was rested again. The selectors had clearly decided to preserve their player rather than show some bravado at 32 years of age. This approach seems modern, practical, and perhaps even harsher than ever before. When combined with news that Nathan Lyon will need hamstring surgery as a result of diving full stretch on day 5, the Boxing Day Test is no longer a matter of which team is going to dominate, but what each team has in terms of depth, future planning, and succession.
Series Won, Risk Eliminated
Andrew McDonald offered a refreshingly honest account of his reasoning for returning Pat Cummins from injury ahead of schedule; Australia took a well-weighed gamble to bring him back early, and got the job done. There were no obvious advantages in trying to push on with the same workload. That’s workload management at its most direct.
Previous Ashes Captains have always continued to bowl as long as something didn’t break, remember Michael Holding in 1976 or Flintoff in 2005. The decision by Cricket Australia to leave Cummins out signals a different way of thinking about how to go about an Ashes series. Once they get their result to win the series, win the match, the symbolism of enduring through the pain of bowling is gone; it’s just part of a large portfolio of events in what has become a crowded calendar, including the two-year World Test Championship cycle and global tournaments.
Steve Smith’s Accidental Homecoming
Without Cummins’s presence in the side, Australian captain Steve Smith will likely be leading until he recovers from an ear problem that kept him off the field in Adelaide. It seems like this isn’t about handing over power but rather that he’s just going through motions.
The return of Steve Smith to Australian Test cricket is as much about the sense of stability that comes with his presence as it is about the tactical void he will leave behind. Australia does not have to think too hard at home; the team can continue to function on autopilot; however, it is the top order where stability needs to be maintained to avoid experimentation at the wrong time – Boxing Day is no place to test out new combinations of batsmen.
In a similar vein, the changing of the guard in the Australian Test captaincy is symbolic of the transition from one generation to another. The pause of a new era has been halted by the steadying hand of the old guard, and the Australian Test machine continues to keep on running.
Lyon’s Injury Opens a Rare Door
The absence of Nathan Lyon could be a bigger blow than that of Cummins, as Lyon has only missed 1 home test since 2013; Lyon’s torn hamstring (which he injured while attempting to save a run with a somewhat comical diving attempt) will require surgery, and the Australians will have to deal with their most consistent control bowler being absent from competition.
Todd Murphy enters the scene. He has not played a test since February at the hands of Sri Lanka. Although he was tested by challenging conditions that were quite different from what he will face in Melbourne, it was his steady and accurate bowling that made a good impression. At the MCG, Murphy will not have the responsibility of tearing through England but instead holding down one end while Starc and Boland go for broke.
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