Ashes 2023: Nasser Hussain lauds 'exceptional' Pat Cummins after Australia skipper stars in Edgbaston win

Everything lines up if you win and nothing, no matter how meticulous, matters if you lose. This is exactly how it is with Australian skipper Pat Cummins, believes former England cricketer Nasser Hussain. After putting in an important 38 runs in the first innings and four dismissals in England’s second innings, captain Cummins saved his men with a match-winning knock of 44 on Day 5 of the first Ashes Test and helped his team win the match by two wickets. Cummins was very careful with the bat in the second innings as the Aussies needed 72 to win as he came in. He was calm until he saw it come home and struck a couple of maximums along the way before completing the task with a boundary. Hussain, taking to his Daily Mail column, underscored Cummins’s calm under pressure and how if he hadn’t won the match for his team, he would have received all the brickbats. “To be able to hang in there when England played the way they did, Joe Root scooping him and him having to set fields to counteract it, was a mark of him as both a cricketer and character,” Nasser wrote. “The criticism he faced for adopting defensive fields, the ability to soak all of that up, and then on the fifth evening come out with 72 runs needed and bat in such a clinical manner was exceptional.” “If Australia had lost, everyone would’ve been questioning his tactics, and his captaincy for being too defensive. He wins, and it’s genius. “That’s pretty much international captaincy = if you win, you get back to all the decisions that you make, and if things go against you, then people pick them apart.” Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.