Australia captain Pat Cummins looks ahead to the fifth and final Ashes Test against England at the Oval
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00:00 Oh, my.
00:02 Oh!
00:03 What?
00:04 Got me last time.
00:07 Thank you.
00:08 Thank you.
00:09 Thank you.
00:10 Thank you.
00:12 Hiya.
00:13 How are you?
00:14 Good.
00:15 Good.
00:16 All right, thanks, folks, for that final time.
00:41 Good afternoon, Matt.
00:47 Are you in a position to name a team yet?
00:53 Not yet, unfortunately.
00:54 Yeah, I think the Soccer Teams are going to be about now, but come down, have a final
01:00 look at the weekend and get around to the boys.
01:03 What's the sort of big thing outstanding from your point of view in terms of picking a team
01:07 for this side?
01:08 Probably biggest difference from last week is the spinner, whether that comes into the
01:14 equation, and waiting for a couple of boys to see how they pull out, but at this stage
01:19 it looks like everyone's going to be good.
01:22 Thank you.
01:23 Great.
01:24 Speaking of the spinner, was there any time during the last test when England were piling
01:29 on the runs that you felt the need for a spinner or you missed having a specialist spinner?
01:33 Yeah, would have loved a leggy and offy, a few other options.
01:37 Might have made a difference, you never quite know.
01:42 I think in those moments maybe a change of pace is helpful.
01:46 Obviously I had Trav there to use a couple of times, so you never quite know, but someone
01:52 like Nathan Lyon does that role really well over the last however long.
01:57 You've spoken a lot about how much you've enjoyed the captaincy bit in terms of problem
02:01 solving, but just captaining six tests in such a packed schedule, is there something
02:06 called captaincy fatigue at all?
02:07 Have you felt it at some point?
02:10 Do you have to make too many decisions?
02:13 Maybe a bit, yeah, haven't felt it so far.
02:16 I know coming into the series I felt like six was going to be really busy, but no, it's
02:23 all been pretty good.
02:25 Obviously there's some challenges and some moments you scratch your head, but I feel
02:30 in a really good place physically and in terms of the captaincy I feel like I'm learning
02:35 new things every game.
02:37 Yeah, it's been manageable.
02:40 David Warner mentioned yesterday he didn't really feel he'd seen baseball.
02:47 What's your feeling about seeing it as a captain?
02:49 Do you feel you have?
02:51 Didn't know David said that.
02:54 I think there's been, this series has pretty much had everything.
03:01 You've seen really slow passage of play, St. Lourdes, where both teams really dried up
03:06 the run rate.
03:08 And other times where it's accelerated and you've seen both teams have batters batting
03:15 with the tail with nine fielders out the fence, which I've never seen in Test cricket before.
03:19 So I feel like it's had it all.
03:21 I don't know what the definition is of it, but it feels like this series has had a lot
03:26 of really good cricket, but also a lot of cricket that has been a bit different to traditional
03:32 Test cricket.
03:34 Just a question on Cam, whose position might be vulnerable, depending on how you line up
03:40 this week.
03:41 How do you view how he's gone on this trip?
03:43 He obviously came off a big IPL.
03:45 He's learning to be an all-format cricketer now, something you've had to go through as
03:49 well.
03:50 How do you see where he's sat at the moment and perhaps the challenges he faces now as
03:53 his career evolves?
03:55 I guess the biggest difference is someone like Marci has been given a chance through
04:00 injury and has been brilliant.
04:03 That's probably been the biggest difference.
04:06 I think when we come back here to the Oval, he bowled brilliantly here in the World Test
04:11 Championship.
04:12 And since then, the way the series has gone, and obviously this is a Test through injury,
04:17 but it's probably been a bit more stop-start in terms of he's been used as bowling bouncers
04:24 at times.
04:25 Sometimes the innings have been quite short and he hasn't bowled too much.
04:30 So he probably hasn't bowled as much as perhaps we thought.
04:33 In terms of batting, again there's been little snippets where he's looked really good and
04:37 other times where he hasn't managed to get through that initial phase.
04:41 He's still young.
04:43 I think most of our team are basically into their 30s.
04:46 He's probably the only one from last game who is still starting out.
04:50 He's played 20-odd for the pod test now, but like any batter, you'd think his best years
04:57 are ahead of him.
04:58 And someone like Cam, he's doing all his learning in the satchel cricket, it's not easy.
05:04 Pat, I know yesterday there was plenty of talk about retirements and whatnot, but not
05:09 specifically speaking about those players, but just generally talking, two and a half
05:12 years' time come the next satchels, and especially in four years' time, it's probably fair to
05:16 say this Australian team will look very different.
05:19 Do you feel like Australian cricket has learned from the challenges from the mid-2000s to
05:25 be able to transform this team into the next hero when that time comes around in the next
05:29 couple of years?
05:31 Potentially.
05:33 It's a hard one.
05:36 I certainly don't want to rush anyone out of the door.
05:40 I think this is about the fourth Ashes series where Jimmy Ennison says it's going to be
05:44 his last one.
05:45 You never quite know.
05:47 It is just an age.
05:48 Some of these guys might be around here in four years and still being at the top level.
05:53 We'll see, but it's always a conversation.
05:55 I think in cricket we're lucky you've got white ball cricket where you can have a soft
06:00 entry for a lot of the guys, giving them exposure to international cricket.
06:05 It's something the selectors talk about, but really you try and pick your best 11 each
06:10 week.
06:11 Do you and your brother's captain keep a close eye on Shield?
06:16 You don't get much of a chance to go back to it these days, but actually see what's
06:19 coming through.
06:20 Have you got an idea of the next crop of guys in their early to mid-20s that are likely
06:24 to come into this team, probably during your captaincy era?
06:27 I wouldn't say I keep a really close eye on Shield cricket, but our selectors certainly
06:32 do.
06:33 When they're home, they're travelling around and they've got really open communication
06:37 with heaps of Shield players.
06:40 I think you saw during IPL time this year we had an Aussie A team that went over to
06:46 New Zealand.
06:47 That was a really young side.
06:48 Last year we took an Aussie A side over to Schlenker.
06:50 I think they're really important to us.
06:53 Even an Ashes tour like this one, we've got six or seven guys that are on the bench that
07:00 I think could pretty seamlessly step straight in and do a great job.
07:05 I think when the time comes it should be fairly seamless.
07:10 Pat, can I ask you about everyone's least favourite topic, overrates.
07:13 It cost you guys in 2021 for the World Test Championship final, it feels like.
07:18 Could have the potential to do that again depending on how it pans out with this series.
07:24 At the end of this series, do you need to have a good look at how slowly you're bowling
07:30 your overs?
07:31 Potentially, yeah.
07:35 This series has been a bit of an outlier I think.
07:39 We haven't had any overrate sanctions over the last few years until this series.
07:45 It feels like this one's played at a bit of a different pace.
07:50 Some of you speak about ODI cricket as well, when you're set in fields.
07:55 The time can run out pretty quickly.
07:57 It's something we need to speak about.
08:01 Why do you think it has been going at a better pace?
08:05 I think the amount of field changes, really.
08:09 It feels like there's different plans every second over, or every over, every couple of
08:15 balls.
08:16 One batter might have a totally different plan to another one.
08:18 There's lots of field movement, there's a lot more fast bowling overs than there ever
08:22 has been.
08:23 No Nathan Lyon.
08:27 A combination of those things.
08:30 As well, I think this series has maybe a little bit more high pressure.
08:35 Not only the fielding side, but you see the batters taking out a little bit of extra time.
08:40 Pat, you spoke about learning as a captain through the course of the series.
08:44 Do you think you've improved as a captain?
08:46 I hope so.
08:48 I've certainly been exposed to more.
08:50 I think both teams have seen some patches of play which I haven't seen before.
08:58 As we've said before, having nine fielders out.
09:01 Hopefully you can adapt a bit more and a bit quicker for this week.
09:08 Hopefully I'm a bit better.
09:10 I was at my best last week, but hopefully better this week.
09:13 What was it last week that you felt meant you weren't at your best?
09:17 Or which periods of the game in particular?
09:20 I think that day two middle session was where the game really ran.
09:25 In some regards, happy that we tried a few different things.
09:28 I think it's easy to let it really flow by not changing things.
09:33 So happy that we changed a few things, but it didn't come off.
09:36 So I think revisiting a couple of those plans, what we would do differently.
09:40 I'm always one for focusing on what we do really well.
09:44 So I think maybe just shifting that focus at times back to us.
09:48 Pat, have you thought back to four years ago when you were 2-1 up and finished 2-2?
09:54 It could go either way this match and the outlook of the series, I guess.
09:58 Have you thought back to anything that you might want to do differently or to change?
10:06 I think the good thing is it's a really similar group to 2019.
10:10 After that, Manchester was a big win to retain the Ashes, which we hadn't done for a long time.
10:18 Off the back of Headingley, even Lords where we probably missed a trick last year.
10:22 I felt like that was a big exclamation mark on the end of that series.
10:29 We still won Test match play. It feels really different here.
10:31 This group's been really motivated to win the series.
10:34 We know that it wasn't our best week last week and at the end of the game, it was a bit of a pat on the back.
10:41 We've retained the Ashes but it really feels like the job's not done.
10:46 Pat, do you feel that your team's had enough credit for where you are in the series so far?
10:51 Obviously, a lot of the discourse has been dictated by what England are doing because of the way they're playing it.
10:56 It's a slightly different style of Test cricket these days.
10:59 I think that's what makes playing overseas quite tough.
11:02 A lot of the conversation is on the home team.
11:06 I've been really proud of how we've gone.
11:10 Winning the World Test Championship over here, we've lost one Test match out of five matches, winning three.
11:17 That's a really impressive away tour.
11:20 I'm really proud of how the group's gone.
11:24 To retain, it's not easy.
11:26 It's been 20 odd years since we've won it.
11:29 That's the goal.
11:32 In some regards, I still think our best cricket's ahead of us, which is exciting.
11:37 Hi Pat.
11:40 Obviously, Test captaincy is something that you're going to hang on to.
11:47 There was a bit of oscillation in terms of what you might do as Whitehall captain or not be Whitehall captain from the time you were appointed in 2021.
11:53 How have your thoughts evolved on that through this tour and the workload and the fact that some of the Whitehall guys will be preparing for a South Africa trip as soon as the series is over?
12:04 There's one World Cup and then a T20 World Cup after that.
12:07 It hasn't really changed at all.
12:10 To be honest, I see the Whitehall as very much a World Cup, an ODI World Cup.
12:16 It's a big campaign.
12:19 We'll build towards that.
12:21 I know the selectors have been really clear as well in that.
12:25 I'm a bowler first in that team.
12:28 If we need to manage some of those games leading to the World Cup, that takes precedence over the continuity of being captain every single game.
12:38 We'll manage that.
12:40 Again, there's a great team around us of players and staff.
12:44 While I'm the captain and it's got a bit bigger workload, it's manageable.
12:50 Michael Nyssa has been part of the squad for nine Ashes tests in England.
12:58 Is he in contention?
13:01 There are some people on social media who are big fans of him.
13:04 He's quite the cult hero.
13:06 I just want to ask on their behalf, has he just been unlucky to not get that Ashes goal?
13:12 Is he in with a chance?
13:14 Of course, part of the conversation.
13:16 I'm a big fan of Nyssa as well.
13:18 He's one of our favourites.
13:21 It's tough.
13:23 You can only fit 11 players into a team.
13:25 There's nothing more he can do.
13:27 He's scored heaps of runs, taken heaps of wickets.
13:30 We know his class.
13:33 He's just really unlucky.
13:35 Again, he's been part of the conversation for the last few test matches, for sure.
13:41 When you build out a national squad, you're expecting some injuries.
13:44 We haven't really had that in the fast bowling department.
13:47 That's probably worked against him, but we love Nyssa.
13:51 We love what he brings to a team.
13:53 Hopefully, there's plenty more games in the bag of green.
13:59 Thanks, everyone.
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