Pat Cummins Credit: AAP
Pat Cummins Credit: AAP

Australian captain Pat Cummins is quite excited and overwhelmed as Australia retained the Ashes in his first assignment as captain. Cummins called it a childhood dream coming true as they bowled England out for 68 on the third morning of the Melbourne Test to take the unassailable lead of 3-0 in the series.

Cummins lauded the efforts of his bowling attack. Notable that England hasn’t crossed 300-mark so far in the series and barring Joe Root and Dawid Malan, no English batter could reach the fifty-mark in this series.

Australia’s Pat Cummins celebrates during a match against England in the 2019 Ashes, in London. File photograph: Action Images via Reuters/Paul Childs
Pat Cummins- File photograph: Action Images via Reuters/Paul Childs

Everything’s gone to plan. I think our bowlers have been fantastic,” Cummins spoke to the reporters after the match.

“I haven’t even felt like there’s been one session where it’s really got away from us.”It’s what dreams are made of, the way we’ve played,” he added further.

Noteworthy that Pat Cummins was appointed Australian Test captain right before this Ashes series as Tim Paine decided to opt-out from the series. A month later he joined the exclusive club of Australian captains to win the Ashes.

“I grew up watching Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting, those guys winning Ashes series,” he said.

“It felt a million miles away from me playing cricket in the backyard and here I am a decade later in this position.”It’s madness. No way near what I could imagine my life would become as a young kid,” he added further.

Tim Paine, Pat Cummins, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne. Image: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images
Tim Paine, Pat Cummins, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne. Image: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Cummins missed out on the second test because he was identified as a close contact of a Covid-19 positive case but it didn’t stop Australia as they beat the visitors by a thrashing margin of 275 runs under the stand-in captain Steve Smith.

Cummins led from the front as he picked 10 wickets in 2 matches with an average of  14.40 which included a fifer on his captaincy debut at the Gabba.

Now he would be eying for another whitewash to join the exclusive club. Notable that Australia whitewashed England by 5-0 only thrice in the history of Ashes under the captaincy of- Warwick Armstrong in 1920/21, Ricky Ponting in 2006/07, and Michael Clarke in 2013/14.

The fourth test of the series will begin on January 5 in Sydney.

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