Tale of two captains in fast-bowling foes

If today's pre-Test photo opportunity with rival skippers Pat Cummins and Jasprit Bumrah wasn't worth the full thousand words, it certainly revealed a tale valued in the high hundreds.

Cummins' well-worn Australia Test cap number 423, with its fraying peak and fading coat of arms, betrayed a playing tenure stretching back to 2011 with the past three of those years as captain.

By contrast, Bumrah's almost pristine navy fabric sporting the Star of India and number 290 would seem to have been updated since his debut in 2018 and is perhaps a new model presented in his only previous Test outing in charge at Edgbaston in 2022.

And while the world's number three (Bumrah) and four (Cummins) ranked Test bowlers might be at differing stages of their respective captaincy journeys, they are also indicative of a broader change in cricket's leadership structure.

There was a time not so far gone when bowling fast was seen as a structural impediment to leadership.

The most recent Test series in which two such highly rated quicks led their teams was the three-match campaign of late 1997, when Pakistan's Wasim Akram (ranked second in the world) led the home nation against West Indies under Courtney Walsh (ranked seven).

But as Cummins pointed out, tomorrow's start of the five-match NRMA Insurance series at Perth Stadium is his second consecutive Test campaign against a pace-bowling skipper following this year's 2-0 win over Tim Southee's New Zealand.

"I don't think it really changes too much again, but it's one of those rare things," Cummins said of his upcoming duel with fellow quick Bumrah, standing in for regular India captain Rohit Sharma who is on paternity leave.

"Looking forward to seeing, hopefully from the changeroom, how he goes about his work out there.

"But as a fan of fast bowling, it's always good to see."

Apart from their chosen discipline with the ball, Cummins and Bumrah can claim a similar lack of captaincy pedigree upon being elevated to the top job in the Test arena.

Australia's skipper, who has led his country in 28 Tests for 17 wins, boasted just four domestic one-day games at the helm of New South Wales prior to taking over from Tim Paine at the start of the 2021-22 homes Ashes campaign.

Bumrah had no previous leadership credentials to point to – at either first-class or limited-overs level – prior to being installed on an interim basis against England in July 2022 after Rohit tested positive to COVID-19.

But he is neither daunted by the responsibility, nor doubting of his capacity to carry it out despite recording a seven-wicket loss in his only other Test as captain.

"I love responsibility, I wanted to do the tough job since I was a child," 30-year-old Bumrah said today.

"You always want to be in the thick of things, you want to be thrown against tough scenarios and this is another one that adds a new challenge to me.

"There is no greater honour than this.

"As a child, I always wanted to play this format and leading India in Test cricket.

"Very few players have played Test cricket for India, and captains are even less, so I'm very privileged and very happy to be in this position."

The opposing skippers shared several minutes of good-natured chat before and during today's photo shoot that was captured by upwards of 50 camera folk and journalists, though it's doubtful any meaningful leadership insights were swapped.

However, Cummins had earlier conceded it took him around 10 Test matches in charge to gain a full appreciation for the complexities of combining the collective needs of captaincy duties with the individualistic demands of bowling fast.

"But I don't think I particularly changed too much over those 10 Test matches," he said.

"Your intuition gets a little bit stronger, but even when I was really new to it, I had wonderful teammates who were helping you out.

"So you never really feel like you're out there alone.

"I think the question is always are you bowling too much, or not enough?

"But it's gut feel, speak to some other people out there and come up with a decision."

In addition to donning their respective team blazers for tomorrow morning's coin toss, there are notable similarities between both skippers.

At age 31, Cummins is just seven months older than Bumrah and the pair claim near identical Test bowling averages (Cummins 22.53 versus 20.57), strike rates (a wicket every 46.8 deliveries against 44.6) and economy rates (2.88 runs per over and 2.76).

Where there remains a broad gulf is in overall experience, not only in calling the shots for one of the most scrutinised Test outfits in world cricket.

Cummins might have missed more than six years due to a series of significant injuries, but has played 62 Tests compared to Bumrah's 40 with a wickets tally of 269 compared to his opposite number's 173.

But on top of that statistical advantage is the not insubstantial reality that Cummins has led Australia to victory in the high-pressure, higher stakes environment of a World Test Championship final and a 50-over World Cup decider.

Both of those occasions came last year; both against India.

Bumrah might be just the second paceman to captain India in Tests after allrounder and World Cup-winning skipper Kapil Dev, but as his unique stiff-arm bowling action underscores, he has never been one to be bound by convention.

"You gain experience by playing; nobody is born with experience," he said today.

"You have to find your own way, you can't blindly copy anyone.

"I've never followed a copybook plan in terms of my bowling as well as you can see.

"I've never followed a model and I go with my instincts and that's how I've always played my cricket.

"I have a lot of faith in my instincts and gut, so that is what I go with and tactically as a bowler.

"And obviously bowlers do a lot more research and are (more) data driven than batters because that's how the game is headed."

If there is one more point of commonality between the captains who square off in Perth tomorrow, it's agreement their fast-bowling fraternity should be increasingly represented in Test leadership ranks after being largely ignored for almost 150 years.

Among bowlers considered genuinely fast at the peak of their bowling powers, barely a dozen have captained at Test level with Pakistan's Imran Khan and Waqar Younis and England's Bob Willis among the other most-capped.

Bumrah echoed Cummins' call for more of their colleagues to follow the path being forged, and paid tribute to his Australia rival for his part in redressing that historical anomaly.

"I obviously have been a fan of bowlers and fast bowling, that is why I picked up being a bowler," Bumrah said.

"I feel that physically it's a lot more draining to bowl, but tactically bowlers are quite smart as well.

"There's many examples in the past, in Australia as well (as India).

"Pat has done a phenomenal job, he's got a lot of success.

"Hopefully it's the start of a new tradition and many more players will follow that."

NRMA Insurance Men's Test Series v India

First Test: November 22-26: Perth Stadium, 1.20pm AEDT

Second Test: December 6-10: Adelaide Oval, 3pm AEDT (D/N)

Third Test: December 14-18: The Gabba, Brisbane, 11.20am AEDT

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: (first Test only) Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed