'I want him to finish career as...': Ian Healy wants Pat Cummins to quit Australia captaincy, names new captain

In 15 Tests Cummins captained, Australia lost three matches - two of those were against India. In ODIs, he's two out of two with the impending three-match contest against India next month being his first big assignment.

Amid Australia's twin defeats, by massive margins, against India in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, Pat Cummins' captaincy has been questioned. His selection choices in the first Test and tactic in the second innings while defending 113 runs in New Delhi were both heavily criticised as Australia went 0-2 down in the series to concede the trophy for the fourth consecutive time. Amid the talks, former Australia cricketer Ian Healy opined that Cummins should not carry the burden of captaincy for too long as he named not one, but two replacement options for the Aussies.

Pat Cummins; Ian Healy

In November 2021, Cummins was named as the captain of the Australia Test side and was later given the duties of the ODI team as well towards the fag end of 2022 as a replacement for Aaron Finch. He also remains a frontrunner to take over the role in T20I cricket as well.

In 15 Tests Cummins captained, Australia lost three matches - two of those were against India. In ODIs, he's two out of two with the impending three-match contest against India next month being his first big assignment.

“I don’t want him carrying the burden of so much captaincy for too long. I want him to finish (as just a bowler),” he told SENQ’s Pat and Heals. “The captaincy creates a burnout and four to five years is a long time as a captain. He’s done a few years (as Test captain) already, now he’s adding (short-form captaincy) to his thought processes at a time when he’s dealing with some sort of family illness back home.

“So yeah, I would like to see him finish his career as a tearaway fast bowler and someone else with the captaincy burden.”

Despite his opinion of wanting Cummins to end his captaincy run soon, Healy admitted that there are dearth of options to replace him. Healy however picked Travis Head and Glenn Maxwell as the likely options.

“I think Travis Head is quite capable. He’s led South Australia since he was a 21-year-old, he’s quite capable and has got a lot of experience,” Healy explained. “He’s the main one that stands out to me. The likes of Glenn Maxwell might be able to do parts of it (in the short form), but as far as longer-term captaincy prospects other than Travis Head, I can’t think (of any).”