Pat Cummins has won big matches for Australia with both bat and ball.
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Cummins → win → bat
He has advocated on climate change, and stuck up for his teammates in the aftermath of Justin Langer’s axing as coach.
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He → advocate → coach
Cummins has nearly always met the moment in the 15 years since he was presented with his baggy green in Johannesburg.
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he → meet → Johannesburg
His task now as Test captain is to unite a dressing room and re-unify Australian cricket after a bruising week for the game.
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task → unite → game
For all the work Cummins and his teammates have done in rebuilding the reputation of the national men’s team, the prevailing view of the side, according to the Australian public this week, is they are cheats.
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they → do → public
Cricket Australia’s hasty investigation in 2018 left many gaps, which Usman Khawaja’s warts-and-all memoir and David Warner’s social media posts have filled.
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memoir → leave → which
Warner is likely to say more on Friday when he suits up in the Kayo Sports commentary box in Perth for the opening one-day international against England.
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he → say → England
While there has been much angst in and outside the dressing room at the candid nature of Khawaja’s book Sabr, much of the criticism of the chapter dedicated to one of Australian sport’s biggest scandals has played the man rather than the ball.
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much → dedicate → ball
Whether friendships forged under the baggy green are lost forever is a matter for Khawaja and his former teammates to discuss.
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Khawaja → forge → green
Of more significance is how Cummins addresses the central premise of Khawaja’s claims: that the whole team knew sandpaper was being used.
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sandpaper → address → claims
Perhaps Cummins can give ground on Khawaja’s argument that the entire team was complicit as they all stood to gain from an illegally altered ball that hooped around corners.
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that → give → corners
What would be more surprising is a confession to knowledge of the sandpaper plot when Cummins has been adamant from the start he did not know.
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he → know → start
He made this point publicly in 2021 when he was a signatory to the statement made by the rest of the Cape Town attack – which also included Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon – after Cameron Bancroft’s interview with journalist Donald Macrae in The Guardian.
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which → make → Guardian
Australian cricket missed that opportunity to take the skeletons out of the closet.
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cricket → miss → closet
They have the chance again.
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They → have → chance
One of Cummins’ problems is many in the public do not believe him or the fast bowlers.
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many → believe → him
There is enough scepticism that a body language expert gave his analysis on Starc’s and Khawaja’s media appearances this week to assess the veracity of their comments.
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expert → be → comments
Some will never give Cummins the chance, based on their disagreement with his progressive politics, but even more fair-minded cricket followers are sceptical of the idea a bowler would not know if the condition of their only tool of the trade was altered.
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condition → give → trade
Cummins, though, is wedged.
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Cummins → wedge → ?
The more emphatic he is to convince the doubters, and support his fellow bowlers, the more he runs the risk of disenfranchising Steve Smith, one of the three players who copped lengthy bans over the scandal.
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who → convince → scandal
Smith is central to Cummins’ ambitions for the team in the next eight months in their goal of conquering India in India and ending what will be a 26-year drought in England.
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what → conquer → England
He remains the team’s best batter in a troublesome top six, an excellent slipper and his onfield tactical acumen alleviates much of the pressure on Cummins as a bowling captain.
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acumen → remain → captain
Smith, the former captain, has been silent on the matter as he recuperates from a neck injury in his adopted home of New York.
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he → recuperate → York
Any schadenfreude he felt when Khawaja’s claims were first aired must surely have faded the longer the issue has dragged on, and the closer it gets to his arrival back home, likely to be early next week when he joins NSW teammates as he prepares for the upcoming Test series against New Zealand.
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he → feel → Zealand
Not everyone around the team is convinced Smith’s neck injury was the sole reason he withdrew from the recent decider in Cape Town, Australia’s first Test at the venue since the tumult of 2018, and there are concerns how the dredging of the past is affecting him.
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dredging → convince → him
Smith can shed more light on these matters if the plans for him to speak publicly next week in Sydney go ahead.
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him → shed → Sydney
How the Australian team performs in India and England will define Cummins’ legacy on the field.
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performs → perform → field
How he handles his state of the union on Friday may well define his legacy off it.
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handles → handle → it
‘It was all of us’: Khawaja blows the whistle on more sandpapergate
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Khawaja → blow → sandpapergate
‘It’s 100 per cent accurate’: Warner backs Khawaja on Cape Town saga
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Warner → ’ → saga
‘My recollection hasn’t changed’: Starc rejects tampering claim
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Starc → change → claim
Opinion: I don’t know a bowler who hasn’t licked, flicked, scratched or slobbered on a ball
News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Friday.
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who → know → sport
The Aporia
