Australia’s Test captain and pace spearhead Pat Cummins has been chosen to lead the One-day International (ODI) side after Aaron Finch had earlier announced his retirement. Cricket Australia (CA) endorsed the 29-year-old to become the country’s 27th ODI captain.
Ben Oliver, CA’s EGM of High Performance and National Teams, said, “We are very fortunate to have a number of high-quality leaders and senior players across all formats. The (CA) Board and selectors agree Pat (Cummins) is the ideal choice to lead the ODI team through the next period including the 2023 World Cup (in India).”
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Meanwhile, CA’s chairman of selectors George Bailey added, “Pat has done an excellent job since taking on the captaincy of the Test side and we look forward to him leading the one-day team to the 2023 World Cup in India.”
Cummins, who also tasted his fair share of success in Tests said, “I have thoroughly enjoyed playing under Finchy (Aaron Finch) and have learnt an enormous amount from his leadership. They are significant shoes to fill although we are extremely fortunate to have a one-day squad with a huge amount of experience.”
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Despite his retirement, Finch will continue to captain Australia in T20Is during the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup at home. David Warner was not considered for the ODI captaincy role due to his lifetime leadership ban which was slapped after the 2018 ‘sandpaper-gate’ scandal during Australia’s Test against South Africa in Cape Town. There has been some indication that the CA Board is mulling a change to its code of conduct that could see Warner brought back into leadership roles.
Also, several other players including Steve Smith, Alex Carey, Glenn Maxwell and Mitch Marsh, were considered for the ODI captaincy role before the CA Board finally settled on Cummins. Cummins also becomes the first fast bowler to lead a men’s team in white-ball cricket.
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“You’d probably need to look at it a little bit differently to perhaps in the past with so much cricket going on, if I was offered it,” Cummins had said a day before being appointed ODI skipper.
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“Just playing every single game isn’t realistic. We’ve got a handful of guys that play all three formats. In a year like this, T20 becomes the focus leading to a World Cup. Next year might be different with the one-day World Cup. But with 15 Test matches in the next six months, I don’t think you can expect the captain to play every game just because he is the captain,” Cummins added.
