Jasprit Bumrah and Pat Cummins, both fast bowlers, are all set to captain India and Australia respectively in the Perth Test on Friday. While Cummins is the regular skipper for the hosts, Bumrah will take the reins of captaincy in the absence of Rohit Sharma who is set to miss the opening game of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.

Ahead of the start of Perth Test, Bumrah and Cummins attended a press conference on Thursday and spoke on the landmark feat of them being skippers in the high-voltage match. Cummins reminisced the bilateral series against New Zealand last year where he and New Zealand fast bowler Tim Southee were captains and drew a parallel with Bumrah captaining India.

What Cummins said
“Yeah, great to see. Should happen more. New Zealand series last year was good with Tim Southee as captain as well. Yeah, I don’t think it really changes too much. It’s one of those rare things. Looking forward to seeing how he goes about his work out there, but as a fan of fast bowling, it’s always good to see,” said the Australian skipper.

What Bumrah said
Bumrah opined that fast bowlers make tactful captains and called the rarity of the upcoming occasion “start of a new tradition”.

“I have always advocated for pacers being captains. They are tactically better. Pat has done a phenomenal job. There are a lot of models in the past as well. Kapil Dev and lot of other captains in the past. Hopefully a start of a new tradition,” said the right-arm fast bowler.

India are set to start their campaign in Australia as the defending champions of the bilateral series, having won four previous editons. The series result will decide India’s fate concerning qualification to the World Test Championship final.