Pat Cummins named NSW one-day captain

Rather than declare he wants to be the man to assume Paine’s position, Cummins was pragmatic about the appointment when quizzed on whether he would like to lead his country at international level.

“I don’t know is the answer,” Cummins said. “This opportunity is a huge one to actually give it a crack. It’s been under-16s since I’ve had a decent crack at it. Just keen to first of all see if I’m any good, or hopeless. If I enjoy it, see how it goes and then not looking too much further ahead than these few games.”

The speedster will find out for himself how he can juggle the physical and mental demands of fast bowling and tactical changes, and decide whether captaincy is a career path he wants to pursue.

“Painey is still here and hopefully he has a few more summers in him,” Cummins said. “At this rate, a few Tests every 20 months, he might play until he’s 45. I’m sure I’ll have some conversations with selectors and other guys [to] see how I went and see what we want to do afterwards. But nothing is permanent or locked in.

“I think like batting and bowling, captaining can be a skill. You’ve got to practise. You’ve got to try and find your own method and I think the best method is by giving it a crack.”

There has been a long-held view in Australian cricket that a fast bowler cannot be captain due to the dual on-field roles, an opinion recently aired by former captain Mark Taylor.

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Cummins disagrees, saying that while there were extra challenges involved, a fast bowler shouldn’t be pigeonholed.

“I don’t think just because you’re automatically a bowler or a wicketkeeper rules you out of captaincy,” Cummins said. “No doubt there is a few more challenges about being a bowler, but also it brings some opportunities. You hope that our skill is trying to get wickets as a bowler and that’s a lot of the time what you’re trying to do as a captain out in the field. Managing the workload, that’s something I’m going to have to see how it goes in these next few games … but I’m not too sure about longer form stuff.”

Pressed on what would be the biggest challenges surrounding captaincy as a quick, Cummins said: “First of all, I’d say just not having a huge amount of experience and just managing that. I’m sure I’ll fall into a rhythm pretty quickly.

“I think the obvious one as a fast bowler is if it’s a really hot day and you’re trying to bowl flat out all day. It’s just making sure the game doesn’t meander on in those moments when you’re trying to catch your breath.”

Cummins will lead a strong Blues side, including Steve Smith and Nathan Lyon – but not Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and David Warner – in the Marsh Cup against Victoria on Monday at North Sydney Oval.

Pace duo Starc and Hazlewood, who played all four Tests against India, were left out of the one-day side but will play in the Sheffield Shield game against the Vics starting on Wednesday at the SCG.

Cummins said he would lean on Smith for advice and joked the former Test captain might find himself fielding at fine leg.

He also rattled off the traits he enjoyed about some former Australian skippers.

“Steve Waugh was over there in the Ashes and I loved how simple he kept things,” Cummins said. “We all love cricket and talk about cricket and really quickly you try to get into the minutiae of it whereas I love how he just takes a step back and keeps it simple.

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“Ricky Ponting; just his love of the game and how he played 160-odd Tests and still just looked like he was up for every moment and loves it.

“Painey; I love how he manages people. Steve [Smith] is always thinking about the game. Even [Michael] Clarkey I felt a million bucks when he used to give me the ball in my debut game. You pick out little bits from each captain but the main thing for me you want to have great relationships have a bit of fun and always try and think of things.”

Meanwhile, Test opener David Warner is sidelined due to the groin injury he suffered in late November but NSW team physiotherapist Kieran Thoms said the batsman was making good progress.

“David Warner is unavailable as we look to optimise his recovery from a recent serious groin injury,” Thoms said.