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Have you heard about Big Pat’s back? You must have by now. The eyes and ears of the cricketing world are zeroed in on a locus of around 10 inches of Pat Cummins’ lumbar region. Hushed whispers about the Australia Test captain’s “stress injury” after his side’s tour of West Indies in July became a rumbling concern as the weeks passed and there was no reassuring statement from the Cummins camp. Ideally it would have been delivered by the man himself with a megawatt smile, just letting everyone know that he was locked in for full part in the Ashes series.
By contrast, earlier this week a more circumspect Cummins put his chances of playing at Perth in the first Test on 21 November as “probably less likely than likely”.
Things may well change in the next six weeks but if they don’t then it is a tremendous shame for him personally and for the wider cricketing public as the Ashes is shorn, to some degree, of one of the world’s greatest ever fast bowlers. If he does manage to get on the park at some stage then it remains to be seen how quickly he can get back to his best.
Cummins’ overall record in Tests already puts him in the conversation as an all-time great – 309 wickets from 71 matches. On average his wickets cost a little more than 22 runs apiece and he gets one every 47 balls. ‘Serious numbers’ is believed to be the correct statistical expression.
To say England are in a better position to regain the Ashes, or even win a first Test in Australia in 14 years, without having to face Cummins goes without saying. Or not. As various pundits, journalists, players, former players and social media slingers have made that exact point this week with varying levels of sympathy, a few caveats and something bordering on unfettered glee. Zero Test wins in 14 years will do that to some.
No bowler gives England’s top order more reason to panic than Pat Cummins. He has 91 wickets against England in 19 matches. No one has dismissed Joe Root more times in Tests.
Who’s likely to replace him? Scott Boland. Well, there’s nothing to fear there then surely? England laid Boland and his redoubtable low to mid-80s seam to waste at home in the 2023 Ashes series. Knocking him off his nagging line and length, Boland went at nearly five runs an over and picked up only two wickets in the couple of matches he played.
Root reverse ramped Boland for six in the first Test at Edgbaston, a shot that seemed to symbolise England’s new way and contrasted dramatically with how Root and the rest of England’s batters had approached Boland in Australia a couple of years earlier. In the 2021 Ashes Boland did for six English batters as the local lad ran amok in the most bashful way imaginable on his Test debut in front of a delirious home crowd at the MCG.
“Build the man a statue!” went the fever pitched commentary line as Boland ripped England apart and secured the urn for Australia. Boland raised the ball to the crowd like a shy toddler unveiling a blob of plasticine after a day at nursery. Never has a man looked less like he wanted a fuss, never mind some sort of effigy.
This England side won’t let Boland do that to them again, goes one school of thought. Have we learned nothing from history, goes the other. Beware the quiet man! No, we’re not talking about Iain Duncan Smith though, admittedly, the point still stands, but rather those quiet men of Ashes folklore who have a huge impact on a series. The ones who float under the radar or were barely mentioned before a ball was bowled but who quietly set about altering the course of a series and the destination of the urn.
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Chris Broad wouldn’t have kept Australian fast bowlers awake at night before the 1986-87 tour but his three centuries went on to be decisive in regaining the Ashes for England. Likewise, veteran opener Chris Rogers demanded barely any column inches before the back-to-back Ashes in 2013 and 2014 but the left-hander finished as the leading run scorer from the two sides across both series.
Ian Bell scored three crucial centuries in the English summer of the 2013 series but his achievements aren’t lauded as much as others seem to be. There’s no Bell’s Ashes moniker, there was no Triple Threat Bell DVD release either. Chris Woakes, another of England’s most notably humble foot soldiers played a vital hand 10 years later with 19 wickets in three Tests and important lower order runs to rescue England from 2-0 down in 2023.
From the taciturn John Cornish White in the 1928-29 series to Richard Ellison in 1985, Paul Reiffel in 1993 and Stuart Clark in 2006-07, the Ashes have seen plenty of star performances from those initially unfeared.
Boland may have got some tap last time around in England but his record in Australia is phenomenal – 49 wickets at 12.63. The last time he played a Test in Sydney he took 10 wickets against India. Australia will miss Cummins whenever he doesn’t play but in Boland they have a quiet man who knows how to make the ball sing in Australia. Yes he has big shoes to fill, but more dangerously than that – a point to prove.
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