Former Australia batsman Mark Waugh has clearly picked his favorite player for serving the country as a Test captain after Tim Paine finishes. There is no announcement for Cricket Australia (CA) regarding the same.
The ball-tampering incident in Cape Town 2018 which handed Steve Smith and David Warner a ban of 12 months from international and domestic cricket and kept Cameron Bancroft out of cricket for nine months has been already served. In addition to this, world cricket’s governing body International Cricket Council (ICC) banned Steve Smith for two years from leadership roles. Both these bans are done with and thus its believed that new captaincy roles are in discussion.
One such statement regarding replacement in Test captaincy was made by Former Australian batsman Mark Waugh on Fox Cricket’s Road to the Ashes Podcast. According to Waugh, Tim Paine could finish his captaincy role after the Ashes at home later this year, and then only two options remain to fill the captaincy slot. Pat Cummins and Steve Smith.
Waugh was very clear about his choices. Excerpts from the podcast –
“I think when Tim Paine finishes, which could be after the Ashes, I think there are only two choices: Pat Cummins and Steve Smith.”
Waugh played 128 for Australia and amassed 8029 runs with an average of 41.8. Waugh thinks that the selector won’t go far in appointing the Test captain as there is no other candidate. He preferred Pat Cummins as Test captain and Steve Smith as his deputy.
“That’s our field of choices and I don’t think the selectors will steer too far clear of that. There are no other candidates from what I can see unless someone jumps out of the ground. But I’d say Pat Cummins is favorite to be captain, Steve Smith vice-captain,” he said.
Pat Cummins’ recent sublime form along with an amazing World Test Championship performance (leading wicket-taker with 70 wickets) has helped his stature immensely among Australian cricket pundits.
