Pat Cummins ended up with figures of 6/28 in the first inning of the WTC Final 2025 against South Africa.
Eat. Sleep. Lead from the front. Repeat. How heroic is it to be Pat Cummins!
This routine isn’t very far from what the Australian red-ball skipper does. And while doing the same, he now finds himself as the fifth-fastest to 300 Test wickets in terms of balls bowled (13,725 balls).
South Africa lost five wickets in a span of 13 runs, to be reduced to 138 all out from 125/5 in the first innings of the WTC Final 2025. Guess the destructor-in-chief! Cummins wreaked havoc to end with figures of 6/28, the best-ever bowling figures by a captain in a Test at the Home of Cricket. This was his 14th five-wicket haul in the longest format.
Keep delivering, and numbers will follow. Credit to his prolific spell in the first innings of the WTC Final 2025 against the Proteas, Cummins breached the 300-wicket mark in Tests. Not only did he get there, but he sent multiple records tumbling. The Australian red-ball skipper levelled with Imran Khan, becoming the joint 10th fastest to reach the milestone, getting there in 68 matches.
Cummins has picked up 136 Test wickets as the captain of his side. Only Imran Khan has picked more wickets (187) amongst pace-bowling captains. Moreover, only 10 bowlers have managed to scalp over 100 Test wickets as the skipper. And it doesn’t end here. Among Aussie captains, Cummins is behind Richie Benaud by a mere margin of two wickets. Out of his 300 Test wickets, 184 have come in victories (Before the start of the WTC Final 2025). To top it all, he is only the second Australian to claim over 200 wickets in the WTC history.
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The 32-year-old donned the baggy green for the first time in 2011. After his only Test against South Africa in 2011, he was hit by recurring injuries which kept him out of the game for six years. He returned in 2017, and how. Since his return, the Australian red-ball skipper has never looked back. Joe Root, who is considered a modern-day great of the longest format, has struggled against Pat Cummins. The latter has got Root 11 times in Tests, the most he has dismissed a batter.
Throughout his Test career, more than the numbers, it has been about the impact Cummins has created for his side. The importance isn’t his numbers, but the moments when those numbers came. The wicket of South African skipper Temba Bavuma came at a time when the defending champions needed it the most. As a result, Australia ended up bagging a lead of 74 runs in the first innings.
Mind you, this is not the first time Cummins has upped the ante when it mattered the most. The Aussie skipper did something very similar in the WTC Final against India in 2023. A partnership brewing between Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul Thakur was just starting to bother the Australians when Cummins took matters into his own hands. He helped his team see the back of Rahane to set Australia on the course to victory.
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