Introduction

Pat Cummins completed a bucket list of international cricket trophies in grand style at 2.31 pm on Sunday 5 January 2025 at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

The Border-Gavaskar  Trophy for Tests between Australia and India was a much-desired  piece of silverware missing from the cabinet. Australia hadn’t had it for a decade, even failing to capture it in two previous home series.

Cummins doesn’t rate the Border Gavaskar series ahead of the Ashes. “If you lose an Ashes at home, it feels like the world is coming to an end. In that sense, it’s still bigger,” he said.

Nevertheless, he understood the importance of  the series at home against India through 2024-25, and one that he wanted to win.

“It was a wonderful summer that I won’t forget for a while,” he said. “In terms of competitiveness, India have won the last couple of series out here whereas with England, we have been pretty dominant at home.

“This summer did feel like it was the No.1 and No.2 ranked Test sides battling each other out. From that point of view, it did feel bigger than normal,” he said.

 A loss in the first Test in Perth in November 2024 was a huge setback. But the Australians were resilient – they hit back to win in Adelaide and draw in Brisbane.  The series was 1-1, on a knife-edge as the saying goes, with two Tests to go.

The traditional Boxing Day Test in Melbourne became the turning point. What a match it was!

Rod Nicholson has seen more cricket than most Australians. He began as chief cricket writer on the Melbourne Herald newspaper in 1972, moved to sister paper The Sun in 1988 then the Herald-Sun until 2002 before spending another decade writing about cricket for the Sunday Herald Sun.

One of his great pleasures for decades was a front-row seat for the drama of an annual Boxing Day Test at the iconic MCG.

It was no surprise that he was an enthusiastic spectator at the 2024 version that was to be one of the best of all time.

ROD NICHOLSON picks up the story:

AS Test matches go, the script writers want champions to excel, fresh faces to impress, local heroes to triumph, controversies, massive and enthusiastic crowds and a cliff-hanging result.

The 2024 Boxing Day Test at the MCG between Australia and India had it all – in spades!

The rivals entered the contest at 1-all, and such was the excitement surrounding this now feverish contest between the world’s two top teams – with the bonus of a huge and vocal local Indian fan base – that a record 373,691 fans flocked to the great ground to soak it up while a record worldwide audience tuned in.

To paraphrase the elements that guarantees this Test will be regarded as one of the best ever played….

Champion Indian paceman Jasprit Bumrah captured 4-99 and 5-57 in another mesmerising display while Australia’s champion and skipper Pat Cummins was instrumental in victory with a superb all-round performance of 49 and 41 runs, and 3-89 and 2-28 off 18 overs in an effort that decided the outcome.

The fresh faces also were outstanding. Opening batsman Sam Konstas had the audacity to take on Bumrah with unorthodox shots, eventually scoring 60 on debut.

For India, opening batsman Yashasvi Jaiswal continued his ascent to champion status with 82 and 84, while Kumar Reddy registered his maiden century with 114 in the first innings to avoid the follow-on target.

The MCG’s local hero was paceman Scott Boland. He did not disappoint his fans, snaring 3-57 off 27 impeccable overs and a match-deciding 3-39 off 16 overs in the second innings.

Controversies abounded from the outset. Indian legend Virat Kohli shoulder bumped young Kostas during his first morning blitz (resulting in a fine and demerit point on his record); the third umpire was regularly under the spotlight with decisions that divided the cricket community, and even Australia’s decision to bat on at the outset of day five was contentious.

By tea on the final day, a draw seemed the most likely outcome as India reached the break without losing a wicket in the middle session.  

However, there was one final twist to come, and it was monumental. Australia captured 7-34 after the break, claiming victory with 13 of the final 15 overs remaining in the match.

Nobody should merely look at the scoreboard when recalling this Test.

To see Australia won by 184 runs would give the impression of a comprehensive victory. Yet, the twists and turns in this engrossing contest tell a vastly different tale – one that nobody will forget.

Certainly not Australian captain Pat Cummins whose leadership, contributions and decisive moments earned him the Man-of-the-Match award.  

 

And so, the Pat Cummins story  continued its advance, from the day in 2021 when he was announced as Australia’s 47th Test captain, raising some snorts of derision that a fast bowler should be given the job in Australia that ranks in status somewhere near to that of the Prime Ministership.

Other countries had been successful with fast bowlers as captains – Imran Khan, Waqar Younis, Bob Willis, Wasim Akram and Courtney Walsh, to name some.

At the end of the Border-Gavaskar series, Cummins had led Australia in 33 Test matches, winning 20, losing 7, and drawing 6.  He entered the list of top 10 Australian Test captains and with the win in Sydney against India he became the 11th Australian to lead the team in 50 matches (T20s excluded as he had not led Australia in that format). He became the eighth Australian skipper to record 20 or more Test wins.

Nominating his top five Test victories begins with the best, the 2024 Boxing Day Test at the MCG, of course. He nominates that one  himself, too.

A close second would be the Edgbaston Test in 2023 against  England. His ninth-wicket partnership with Nathan Lyon secured victory.

Three more?

The World Test Championship Final at The Oval in 2023 against India sealed Australia’s place as No. 1 in Test cricket, the spot they still occupied into 2025 ahead of the defence of the World Test Championship mid-year.

Also on the list would be the First Test victory over Pakistan in 2022 on the way to a first Test series win in Pakistan in 24 years.

Obviously, Cummins always will remember his debut as Test captain in the 2021-22 home Ashes series when he took seven wickets, including a five-wicket haul in the first innings.

Winning the World ODI Cup in 2023 also is a special memory for Australia and Cummins – defeating India in India.

Across all formats of international cricket, the Cummins record into 2025 was 31 wins from 48 matches – a 73.8% success rate.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) honoured him in 2025 with the captaincy of its 2024 Test Team of the Year.

If Pat Cummins has a sense of Australian cricket history he will be extremely interested in what was ahead in 2027.

Australia and England would play a pink-ball Test match under lights at the MCG in March 2027 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Test cricket.

The match was scheduled for March 11-15.

The MCG is where the first Test match was played in 1877, and the  Centenary Test was played in 1977. Australia won both, coincidentally by 45 runs.

Would Cummins be the man to lead the Australian team into a tilt at cricket history? He will be  33 at match time, turning 34 two months later. That’s no retiring age, according to conventional cricket wisdom.

He has said he’d like to be still around when cricket is reinstated to the Olympic Games in 2028.

With those two historic events now in the cricket calendar, the Pat Cummins story may be a long way from finished.