Australia captain Pat Cummins on losing World Test championship to South Africa by five wicket

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Australia captain Pat Cummins on losing World Test championship to South Africa by five wicket   14/06/2025  Lords Cricket Ground, London, UK

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00:00Pat this team's had a lot of success in big finals big games what's the emotions like in

00:06the camp after that one? Obviously you know disappointment you work so hard to get to the

00:13final and it's just yeah you kind of just miss that opportunity so yeah disappointment but you

00:19know I think overall everyone was pretty pumped to be here to the final make it but yeah it's

00:24always when you just miss that you know a huge opportunity by a little bit leaves you a little

00:28bit empty. Where do you think the game slipped away from you? I think there was a lot of moments

00:37where kind of both teams wrestled back control I think you know that first innings lead was really

00:42important I think that's an opportunity where you can kind of back the opposition out of the game

00:45and put on you know well over 300 plus and you know the longer you drag it out maybe the conditions

00:51help you out a bit more but we didn't really give ourselves you know big enough of a buffer there

00:54and letting them back in into the game. Pat obviously a lot of the discussion coming into

01:00the game was the top three and I appreciate it soon after the game's finished but do you think

01:05you've come away from this with more questions and answers about that? Oh it's you know we always

01:12knew this was going to be a one-off it's it's pretty specific conditions over here you know

01:16you know again losing the toss on day one and being sent into bowl sorry sending to bat it's

01:22never going to be easy for the top three but yeah I think there's probably quite a few people in the

01:27lineup that kind of wish they could have done a little bit more and obviously you know the top

01:31three was an obvious one in this game. Pat the pitch is obviously a big talking point changed drastically

01:36from day two to three what was your assessment of that? Yeah pretty much that you know I think

01:44when there's cloud covers you know it is real that the ball does a bit more it zips around a bit

01:49more and I think England's one of those places where when it's tricky to bat it's one of the

01:54trickiest places in the world but when it's flat it's one of the flattest places in the world so

01:58you know it's I thought they batted fantastically they didn't really give us a chance they

02:02you know had a really tight defense and whenever we got a little bit wide they scored but

02:08yeah it didn't feel like there was a heap in it for us kind of in the second innings compared to

02:13the first innings. Pat once again it's pretty fresh it's just the result just happened but

02:18with the WTC itself like it goes from cycle to cycle so this being the culmination does it start

02:25does it feel like the start of a new cycle in terms of just the Australian team itself?

02:30Yeah I think in some ways you do I don't particularly know why but it does feel like a little bit of a

02:35fresh start you know fast forward you know a couple of years you start maybe thinking about

02:43who's going to be hopefully if we make the final who's going to be in that and maybe do we want

02:46to get some games into them you know do we feel like now's the right time to change or do you hold

02:52you know with the team that got us to the final so yeah I think we'll kind of got a couple of weeks

02:57before the first test of the windies so I think we'll sit down and have a have a bit of a think and

03:01after we digest this game but yeah for me I think a new WTC cycle in some ways does feel like a bit

03:10of a reset.

03:14Pat there were some sort of nerves evident from South Africa this morning in the period of before

03:19lunch and you were able to sort of string it out did it make you think gee if only we had another

03:2450 odd runs or you know something something like that? I mean yeah that would have been nice you

03:30know I think yesterday you know with Joshi and Starkey in up to 270 it's like okay that's a bit

03:36more of a buffer of course you would have liked it you know a few more but we probably felt like we got

03:39a few extra with with those guys but you know as I said earlier the conditions can change quite a bit

03:47so while it was quite flat it was kind of just draw it out as long as we can try and

03:51you know for the pace bowls just try and go for you know two runs and over

03:55line I was looking really likely and you never know maybe some clouds come over maybe that you

03:59know a new ball does something different but just try to string it out as more and more nerves play

04:03into it as well.

04:04And just one on Steve how you know what have your conversations I guess been like with him and

04:11is it a how long is it going to be before he can try to hold it back I guess?

04:17Yeah I think it's a little bit of a wait and see he's he's good he's

04:21yeah I think he enjoyed the green whistle for an hour yesterday but he's positive I think

04:28you know it's somewhere around the 10 days to two weeks and then maybe you know you try

04:33and back with the split and see how that looks so I think yeah it's a bit of a wait and see

04:37I'd say first test may be unlikely and then kind of go from there but it's a bit early just to tell.

04:42Hi Pat I know you want to sort of win every test series you've got the windies coming up and then a big

04:51a big winter this time as well but does having sort of been here having won it two years ago

04:57having lost it today does it give you a desire to do well straight away and to do well over the next

05:02two years to get back to this show piece? Yeah of course you know to make these finals it's normally

05:08off the back of being really strong at home but you've got to win some away series and

05:11good chances you know we get to do it straight away so yeah you know three test match series

05:18you're straight into a really important career I think that's one of the good things about

05:21the World Test Championship it's every test series and test match feels like you're playing for

05:25something significant so yeah in some ways it's good that we get to dust ourselves off and turn

05:30around in a couple of weeks and start looking looking ahead to the next one. Pat you mentioned

05:35the need for a reset before the next WT cycle can you just elaborate on how that might look and

05:41what processes are there? Oh again you know it's probably more for the selectors and you know

05:48me to sit down and we kind of map it ahead I think say in white ball series a lot of the time it's

05:55kind of you build on four-year cycles for around World Cups for ODIs and yeah I think maybe it's

06:00an opportunity in you know in the test match to do something similar but it's a little bit early

06:06to tell but you know again coming to this match you've got guys like Sam Constance and you know

06:11Scotty Boland, Josh Inglis, all those guys who are right on the fringes so I think again after this

06:17test match everyone gets thrown back into the conversation and it's a little bit of a reset for that first test.

06:25Yeah Pat just on that I mean is there a chance that you feel that there could be maybe a couple

06:30of extra players added to the squad for the West Indies? I'm not sure I think you spin it wrong

06:37in a little bit so again no decisions you know at all have been made I think it's again give it a

06:4348 hours everyone kind of digests and yeah they'll work out if that's true you know if we do or we

06:49keep the same squad so no one's made up their mind yet. And just on Usman Khawaja Pat like obviously

06:56you had a possibly similar situation a couple years ago with David Warner where there was obviously

07:01a lot of benefits with the the experience of players like that yeah do you where do you sort

07:07of see Usman out you made a double hundred a couple of tests ago but in kind of faster conditions it's

07:12looked a bit harder. Yeah you know I think the beauty of someone like Davey or Uzi going through

07:20you know a little bit of a lean patch late in their career you know they've got out of it before

07:24so they've got a good record of kind of dragging themselves out and finding their best

07:29you know but like anyone else you've got to be scoring runs you've got to be taking wickets so

07:33yeah we'll you know we'll wait and see but you know he's obviously would like a few more runs

07:40again going to that Schlenken series you know his name was kind of thrown up there publicly and you

07:46know he scored a double hundred and kind of showed how good he is so I'm sure you know runs aren't

07:51too far away. Hey Pat I just wanted to ask you about sort of the opposition if I could there

07:58there was a lot of criticism about the route that South Africa took to get here and

08:0210 bars your opposite number comes on you know he's in quite a unique situation for a captain

08:07so just one of your your thoughts on just how South Africa performed and how he played as well and how

08:13he led the team from your perspective as captain. Yeah I mean first of all you know how he played uh yeah

08:20I thought he's fantastic he's obviously gave that you know half a chance early and then uh didn't

08:24really give us another look until he got out had a big partnership so I thought he played really well

08:28um in terms of leading it's always pretty hard unless you're kind of playing underneath someone

08:33to to judge them I think so I don't know but from the outside he looked good um and yeah in terms of

08:39you know the way they made it they made it fair and square so um you know everyone has a slightly

08:44different you know route to to make the final but they absolutely deserve to make the final and

08:49um showed why you know I think they're very deserving champions

08:52um quite a few of you you guys were at the IPL you haven't played much red ball cricket recently

08:59was there any sort of rustiness there that you think might account for the performance or

09:02was that the preparation lack of preparation not significant

09:07uh you know I thought our preparation was was brilliant actually you know coming in um

09:11yeah for for a few reasons but you know I thought we got a spot on I think the weather

09:16helped us out as well in that leading um you know I thought the fast bowlers particularly

09:20you know for the medical staff as well they did fantastically well to make sure everyone

09:24was firing on all cylinders from from basically ball one and um yeah I thought we got it pretty

09:30well spot on

09:31um and I'd just like to ask you about Aidan Markram it must be very frustrating watching

09:36go about his business um I think everyone appreciated your sportsmanship as a unit when

09:41he was finally out uh could you just talk about facing him and his innings

09:47yeah he was he was pretty hard to dislodge uh he batted well he kept the scoreboard ticking

09:53over as well which is you know can be frustrating um uh yeah no he's you know a few of us have

09:59played alongside him as well in in IPL and um yeah very well respected he's he's a good man

10:04Aidan so um yeah unfortunately uh for us he kind of made it look pretty easy out there and just

10:10build a big innings and um yeah you know we threw a fair bit at him but yeah had an answer for

10:16everything

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