New Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins is being praised for his handling of a post-match situation which threatened to alienate batter Usman Khawaja.
Captaincy isn’t just defined by your on-field actions – but how you manage a squad in all facets – and Cummins passed his first test with flying colours.
As the Australians celebrated their 4-0 series win, Khawaja, who is Muslim, jumped off the stage as the champagne bottles were being opened.
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Cummins realised this and promptly ordered players to put the bottles down before calling on Khawaja to return to the stage.
It was eyes-up leadership from Cummins, and although only a relatively small gesture in the grand scheme of things, it’s great optics in an an era where the two previous captains – Tim Paine and Steve Smith – have been embroiled in off and on-field scandals, respectively.
But the real question – as some who watched on noted – is how it was left to Cummins to be the one to make Khawaja feel included in the first place.
Regardless, it was a nice footnote for Cummins in a series where his tactics – particularly in Sydney – were at times questioned, but nobody could question his form.
The skipper ended with the most wickets in the series at 21, ahead of Mitchell Starc with 19 and Scott Boland with 18.
Khawaja didn’t have a happy time opening the batting after being promoted up the order to accommodate the returning Travis Head, scoring six and 11 in his two digs.
Despite that, he finished as the fifth-highest run scorer of the series despite only playing in two matches, after his dual century performance in Sydney.
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