In the mid-80s, Australia were at their lowest ebb. The Chappell brothers had retired, Dennis Lillee was gone, as was Rod Marsh. All those retirements saw Australia get just one win in 20 Tests and none at all in 14 matches in the mid ‘80s. It was a tough time – but that is when Allan Border stepped up and decided to employ a new aggressive policy.
The policy, as revealed by his then teammate, Merv Hughes, in the 2017 documentary Forged in Fire: Cricket’s Greatest Rivalry, was based on his belief that he would “rather win games and be seen as a p***k” than stay the nice-guy losers he considered Australia to be at the time.
And it was a policy that worked very well. Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting… all adopted the same template and they all won. But even in the midst of all that aggression, the one thing that would always stand out was the way Australia would never give up. Push them into a corner and they would find a way back.
The aggression might have helped them intimidate some opponents but it was their skill with bat and ball that got them the wins; it was the ‘never-say-die’ temperament that got them across the line. So if one were to take away the naked aggression – as it has been now – what kind of Australian cricketer would one be left with?
In a nutshell, the answer would be someone like Pat Cummins.
Rock-solid
When Cummins was handed a plane ticket to India last year and told that he would be replacing an injured Mitchell Starc, even he was surprised. At that point, he had played only one Sheffield Shield match for New South Wales and no one quite knew how his body would hold up. But he has not missed a Test since making his comeback in Ranchi.
And it is not just that. He has sent down more overs than any other Australian paceman in this period and taken more wickets than anyone. When one considers how lean a period this has been for Australia, who have slid down to No 6 in the world Test rankings, he has been a rock for them; a rock they can start building a foundation around.
In the Melbourne Test, he has somehow found the mental strength to keep going even when the shoulders of some of his teammates have dropped. In the first innings, he got Australia their first wicket with a wicked bouncer to Hanuma Vihari; Mayank Agarwal was next to go before he finally ended the long vigil of Cheteshwar Pujara at the wicket. If Kohli has Bumrah, Paine has the relentless Cummins.
With bat or with ball, he doesn’t give up. He attaches a price to his wicket. Even when the Australian top order had capitulated in the first innings, he played 48 balls in the middle for his 17 runs.
Then, when he was called upon to bowl again just a short while later, he charged in, he got wickets and somehow managed to lift the morale in the team. Hazlewood could be seen breaking into a smile, Paine seemed to find his voice again but clearly the inspiration wasn’t enough to propel the team into making a comeback.
The openers perished cheaply. Finch trying to cut a ball when there was simply no space. Harris was caught at short-leg. Khawaja, Shaun Marsh and Mitchell Marsh all got into their 30s but played in a positive manner. Their fault, though, was that they failed to go on and get a big score. If Australia had a have a chance to draw the game, someone in the top order had to drop anchor, but no one did.
New perspective
It was a scenario that has been repeated all year. The batsmen simply haven’t been good enough. The replacements aren’t any better and the only players every Australian seems to go back to are Steve Smith and David Warner. But that isn’t the answer to their problems. Rather, the only out of the predicament to follow the example of Cummins – who seems to be getting better with every outing; who seems to fight for every inch; who seems to want to show people what Australian cricket is all about.
He came in to bat on Day 4 with the Australian total on 157/6. The match, in almost everybody’s estimate, was long gone. He had already bowled 45 overs in the match and no one would have blamed him if he had been dismissed early. But he put his best foot forward to score an unbeaten 61 and take the match into the final day. In doing so, he recorded his career-best bowling figures (6/27 in the second innings) and career-best batting performance on the same day.
While many of the batsmen seemed to be spooked by the pitch, Cummins calmly trusted himself and his defensive technique. He simply told India that if they wanted him back in the dressing room, they would have to get him out. He would not gift them his wicket.
Maybe all that time Cummins has spent on the outside has given him a new perspective of the game that perhaps the more privileged players don’t quite get. But if the other batsmen would follow the same approach, India might find the beating the Aussies to be a much more challenging prospect than it currently is.
For now, the Boxing Day Test isn’t over. It might just take one delivery on Day 5 to send Cummins back and dash Australia’s hopes, but India can be pretty sure that that ball will have to be a special one.