Steve Smith will be taking over the captaincy duties for the Australia Test team in the 2nd Test. This comes after regular captain Pat Cummins has been ruled out of the game because of a quadriceps thigh injury which he sustained in the 1st Test match against West Indies.
Pat Cummins did not bowl in the last two days of the 1st Test match against West Indies and even though he did around 40 minutes of running work on Tuesday, the Australian management did not want to take a risk.
They have named Steve Smith as the stand-in-skipper and have named Scott Boland as the replacement of Cummins. Boland has played 3 Test matches so far and all the games have been Ashes matches. He was in stupendous form in that series and finished with 18 wickets under his belt. Boland has a Test bowling average of 9.6.
“Team medical staff commenced Cummins’ recovery in Adelaide but selectors deemed there was not sufficient time for the fast bowler to be fully fit for the match,” Cricket Australia said.
Pat Cummins does not want to rush back from injury
Pat Cummins himself was extremely cautious and did not want to jump the gun and eventually miss the entire Australian summer of cricketing action.
“It’s definitely part of the thought process the last few days. I don’t really want to turn a one-weeker into a three- or four-week injury and potentially miss the summer,” said Pat Cummins.
The 2nd Test match between Australia and West Indies will be played at the Adelaide Oval and it is a pink-ball Test match. The Ozzies would be high on confidence as they have a 100%-win record in pink-ball Test matches.
Australia has won 6 out of these 9 games at the Adelaide Oval itself and would be outright favourites heading into the game, even without the services of their skipper Pat Cummins.
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