After a hard-fought fifth Test victory over India to clinch the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a 3-1 margin, the post-series press conference with Pat Cummins, wearing a weary grin under a pink brim, began with a juicy full toss of a question: “As a captain,” the journalist asked, “do you feel you have completed cricket now?”
It was in some ways justified. Having become the first Australia Test captain since Mark Taylor on the 1997 Ashes campaign to turn a 0-1 deficit into a five-Test series triumph, Cummins’ side now hold the trophies in every one of their bilateral Test series. They also won the 2023 ODI World Cup in India and will defend their World Test Championship mace against South Africa in the final at Lord’s in June.
But the contest in Sydney was hardly a coronation. The Test hung on the batting contribution of Test debutant Beau Webster and the absence of injured India superstar Jasprit Bumrah in the final innings. Even without Bumrah, Steve Smith’s dismissal at 3 for 58 looked set to give the series a final twist. Only modest yet vital contributions from Usman Khawaja, Travis Head and Webster sealed a six wicket win.
It was easy to forget India had walloped the home side by 295 runs in Perth and that in the subsequent six weeks Bumrah had made the Australia’s batters look like ten-pins at a bowling alley. Yet the immediate outlook for Cummins’ side is all beer and skittles. Alex Carey said the team deserved a drink, and an obliging Sam Konstas was still on the SCG turf with a bottle in hand at 9pm on Sunday night. Head – another known to enjoy an ale in celebration of a crowded trophy cabinet – said “the T20 World Cup is the last one to tick off for a few of us”.
Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP Image/Reuters
That tournament will be hosted in India in 13 months. Before then there’s the World Test Championship final in June, and a home Ashes series in November. So while winning back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in a decade warrants celebration, this was just episode one of this generation’s Last Glance ahead of the real final frontier in January 2027: a five Test return series in India.
It’s no coincidence coach Andrew McDonald has extended his contract to 2027. In October he said “transition” was coming for this all-conquering side. “It’s very hard to change a settled team that’s performing really well. There’s historical moments – the 1970s and 2007 – where mass players have exited and [the team] struggled to perform at the same level,” he said. “We are not beholden to the past, and I think if you get selections right on the back of players exiting, then the transition is a lot smoother.”
Australia got the Nathan McSweeney decision wrong, axing the 25-year-old replacement for David Warner after three Tests and blooding Konstas. But the glow of the 19-year-old’s audacious MCG debut is already fading. It highlights the attraction of a known quantity, even if worn or waning. Cummins told the press conference that selectors resisted the temptation for panic after the defeat in Perth, saying it was “more important to realise we’re still the No 1 team in the world, we’re still a very good team, so stay strong.”
Khawaja will be 40 when the 2027 Border-Gavaskar series comes around. “He always says age is just a number,” Cummins said of his late blooming opener, who hit 184 runs at 20.44 in the five Tests against India. Yet the captain says Khawaja’s 78-Test career had “no end date, as long as he’s still scoring some runs”.
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Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/EPA
Smith’s two centuries amid 314 runs at 34.88 in the series helped quieten calls for his transition, but concerns remain over the top six, Marnus Labuschagne (232 runs at 25.77) chief among them. The 35-year-old Smith – not Australia’s leading series run-scorer (448 runs at 56) Travis Head, age 31 – is tipped to fill in again as captain if Cummins has to miss the coming Sri Lanka tour for the birth of his second child.
Similarly, most of Australia’s bowling attack are now of an age where mortality sets in. Scott Boland, 35, can’t be the selectors’ wonder drug forever, particularly given the relatively young Josh Hazlewood, 33 ,(Mitchell Starc will be 35 in January and Nathan Lyon is 38 by the time of the Ashes) was the fast-bowler to break down this summer.
That 2027 series in India will instead hinge on Australia’s slow bowlers, and whether Lyon – by then 39 – remains potent. Todd Murphy, currently 24, and Matt Kuhnemann, 28, were brought into the squad for the SCG Test ahead of a possible call-up for Sri Lanka. All three played in the fateful Delhi Test in 2023 where a sweep-induced batting collapse marked this generation’s most painful failure.
The constant is Cummins. The 31-year-old finished the series as Australia’s leading wicket-taker (25 wickets @ 21.36), delivered crucial runs in the MCG victory (49 and 41) and ended Rishabh Pant’s fifth Test revival with a perfect delivery. He is the cornerstone for the side, entering his prime as a cricketer.
Two more years of success will place Cummins among Australia’s greatest leaders, if he isn’t there already. To the journalist’s question, the captain – wearing a weary grin under a pink brim – just laughed. Completed cricket? “Unfortunately, I’ve got to keep playing.”
