He’s achieved an Ashes feat that few others have. But he’s still missing an outright win in England
Starc breaks England hearts again as Australia retain Ashes
While it took longer than expected on the fifth day in Adelaide, eventually it was done. A series won, the Ashes retained for another year and a half until they next go up for grabs in England. For Pat Cummins, this makes three consecutive Ashes series captained without giving up the urn. The feat leaves him in sparse but fine company: the others to do it are Joe Darling, Don Bradman, Richie Benaud, Mike Brearley, Allan Border and Mark Taylor.
It made things neater that Steve Smith missed this third Test, having captained the first two wins in Cummins’ absence, so that it didn’t feel like the full-time captain was swooping in to hoover up the stand-in’s lunch. Those situations can be odd, like Adam Gilchrist filling in to lead what was very much Ricky Ponting’s team, captaining two wins in India in 2004 before Ponting returned from injury once the series was decided. Who gets credit for the win?
Smith and Cummins have both made their contribution to the current result, just as both have contributed throughout a team streak of five series holding the urn, a run dating back to Smith’s batting heroics in 2017-18 just before the tour to South Africa that blew up his full-time captaincy. Australian teams have had only three better streaks as Ashes holders: six series between 1934 and 1950-51, six between 1958-59 and 1968, and eight series between 1989 and 2002-03.
