The biggest of stages was set for Virat Kohli as he came in to bat at the World Cup final against Australia. With India down three wickets for just 81 runs, the weight of the Indian contingent was on Virat Kohli’s shoulders to see through the rough and to bring them home yet again for one last time, as he played through the ever-slowing pitch at Ahmedabad.
And right when it seemed like Kohli had brought life back into the Indian ranks with a fifty of his own and a solid partnership with KL Rahul as his partner-in-crime, disaster struck as Kohli played a menacing short-delivery from Pat Cummins on to the stumps.
The 100,000 in attendance stood in silence, as they watched their talisman batter walk out one last time in this edition of the World Cup. And this is a moment that skipper Pat Cummins stated he would savour for a long time to come.
Cummins, who had been finding it fairly difficult to find his groove in the 2023 World Cup, was in terrific form when it counted the most. The skipper exploited the slower pitch and did not concede a boundary in his spell of 2-34 in ten overs.
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This final was fairly personal for Cummins, who had stated in a press conference prior to the final that his team would be aiming to silence the Indian fans in the stadium, saying nothing more satisfying than hearing a big crowd go silent, which did happen with Kohli’s dismissal.
Talking to The Sydney Morning Herald, Cummins said, “I was obviously very pumped. And then we’re in the huddle after that wicket, and Steve Smith says, “Boys, listen to the crowd for a second.” And we just took a moment of pause, and it was as quiet as a library; 100,000 Indians there, and it was so quiet. I’ll savour that moment for a long time.”
Cummins was also celebrated for his tremendous leadership and decision making in the final. The skipper’s field placement, selection/rotation of bowlers and intuition was key to Australia’s win.
“Talking with the coaches over different ways to – especially in the middle overs of the ODI – create something from nothing. We’ve got plenty of all-rounders in the side, so why not have a lot of one-over spells and keep trying different ways to break up their rhythm? And yeah, it seemed to work pretty well,” he added.
Cummins’ ascension to Australia’s captaincy role came in November 2021, after Tim Paine stepped down in a surprise turn of off-field events. And well, it has turned out to be a fruitful endeavour so far, as Cummins has already led the Aussies to retain the Ashes, won its first-ever World Test Championship mace and Men’s ODI World Cup title under his leadership.
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Despite all the success, Cummins admitted that there was a bit of nervousness that came with the crown.
“I was (nervous), for sure. Especially to see two really good mates having their tenures end the way they did. It felt like I was walking straight into it, a little bit.”
“I love putting everything to bowling and I wasn’t sure how the added dimension of captaincy, which I hadn’t really done before, was going to affect it. But since I was a kid, learning all about the history of cricket, you know the Australian captaincy is a big thing, so I felt a real sense of responsibility.”
“But everyone supported me and understood that while I was pretty green in the role I was going to have a lot of good people around me. And I felt that every other time in my life where I’ve had to step up into something unknown, I managed to find my feet pretty quickly. So I would give myself a little pep talk on that.”
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