Pat Cummins will become the first fast bowler to lead Australia in white-ball cricket after Cricket Australia on Tuesday named him the new ODI captain.
Cummins, who is also the Australian Test captain, will take over from Aaron Finch, who had decided to retire to from ODIs last month but continues to remain the captain of the T20I side. Cummins will take over the captaincy duties from the England series starting November 17 at the Adelaide Oval and is likley to be Australia’s captain in next year’s ODI World Cup in India.
The 29-year-old said he would be using the learnings from Finch but also admitted that replacing the opening batter would never be easy.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed playing under Finchy and have learnt an enormous amount from his leadership,” Cummins said. “They are significant shoes to fill”, although we are extremely fortunate to have a one-day squad with a huge amount of experience.”
Cummins is believed to have pipped other candidates David Warner, Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, Alex Carey and Mitchell Marsh mainly because of the way he has performed as a leader of the Test side so far.
Warner was barred from leading a national team for the part he played in the so-called Sandpapergate scandal in South Africa in March 2018, when Australia batter Cameron Bancroft was caught by television cameras trying to rough up one side of the ball in a test match against South Africa at Cape Town.
Bancroft was suspended by Cricket Australia for nine months. Steve Smith and David Warner, who were captain and vice-captain at the time, were banned for 12 months.
Both returned to the national team in 2019 and Cricket Australia recently said it was reviewing Warner’s leadership suspension because of his positive impact on the team.
“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,” said selection chief George Bailey.
“We are very fortunate to have a number of high-quality leaders and senior players across all formats,” Cricket Australia’s high performance manager boss Oliver said. “The board and selectors agree Pat is the ideal choice to lead the ODI team through the next period including the 2023 World Cup.”