Pat Cummins felt his intervention was not required in the Travis Head-Mohammed Siraj send-off row since the Australia vice captain is a "big boy" who can talk for himself as the skipper hailed his team's behaviour in the ongoing series against India. Head smashed a match-winning 140 from 141 balls in the pink ball Test as Australia bounced back from the humiliating defeat at Perth to win by 10 wickets and level the five-match series one-all. After Head was cleaned up by Siraj, the two were seen exchanging words as the batter later suggested he had only said "well bowled". Following Head's claim that Siraj's send-off was uncalled for, and that he had only praised the India pacer's delivery after being bowled, Siraj swiftly denied the accusation, calling it a "lie".
"Travis Head is vice-captain of the team, so he's a big boy. He can talk for himself," Cummins said during the post-match media interaction.
Siraj denied the Head claim and said, "I didn't say anything to him. In the press conference, he said the wrong thing. He lied. No way he said 'well-bowled'." Addressing the matter, Cummins further said: "As a general rule, you normally let the boys be themselves. If you ever need to step in to intervene as captain, I would, but as I said, for our group, I've never really felt like I've needed to do that." Acknowledging the high stakes of the series with packed crowds every day, Cummins said: "It's a big series so there's a lot riding on it. The umpire stepped in pretty quickly, and that was the end of it." "To be honest, they can do whatever they want. I'm more worried about our boys. Like always, I thought our boys' behaviour was excellent this week, like it seems to be every week." Cummins went on to praise Head's match-turning innings and said he has the ability to put pressure on the opposition and take control of the game across formats.
"When Trav walked out to the crease yesterday, that was a turning point. Every time he walks out, the game's kind of in the balance, can go one of two ways and within the space of a session or so, he really took the game out of their hands.
"He just puts the pressure right back on to the opposition, hits into weird areas. Whenever he feels like there's a small opportunity, he'll up the ante and take the game away from the opposition. So, amazing. He's done it time and again for us in many different formats, he's super impressive." Back to our best ========== The 295-run defeat at the hands of Jasprit Bumrah-led India in the opening Test drew heavy criticism from the media, and Cummins said it only motivated his team further.
"I was pretty pumped up. It probably felt like some big wickets in the context of the match. Especially, you know, with the pink ball, it feels like the bar is just a bit smaller. So, maybe, yeah, just really excited more so than usual." "Great week, great to level the series. We were back to our best. That's the kind of team I remember, and how we want to play our cricket. So, it's been really satisfying." "It was hot -- close to 40 degrees out there, humid. Basically, we just kept rotating the bowlers and bowling all day. So, a huge effort from those guys Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland, they showed their class. I feel very lucky as a captain to have those guys."
Josh on track
Cummins also gave an update on injured front-line pacer Josh Hazlewood and said he's on track to be fit for the third Test at the Gabba from December 14.
"Hazlewood will have another bowl tomorrow, so he's on track. We'll then assess from there. It's all gone to plan so far. So, fairly confident he'll be right for Brisbane. We'll know more in the next couple of days," he added.