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Cummins named skipper after Paine bombshell

Matt Majendie

PAT CUMMINS has been named Australia’s Test captain for the Ashes, with Steve Smith acting as vice-captain, after Tim Paine announced he was taking an immediate break from cricket in the wake of a sexting scandal.

Cummins’s predecessor effectively ruled himself out of the series, which starts on December 8, by taking a break from the sport “for the foreseeable future”.

Paine stepped down as captain last week after it emerged he had sent sexually explicit messages to a co-worker in 2017.

Cummins’s ascendancy to the captaincy is a departure from the norm for Australia as the first fast bowler to lead his country since Ray Lindwall in 1956.

Following his appointment, the 28-year-old said: “I hope I can provide the same leadership Tim has given the group in the past few years.

“With Steve and I as captains, a number of very senior players in this squad and some great young talent coming through, we are a tightly knit group. This is an unexpected privilege which I am very grateful for and am very much looking forward to.”

Cummins had been the clear favourite to replace Paine in the wake of his resignation just weeks before the start of the Ashes. The fast bowler admitted he was “not overly comfortable” about the prospect of being put on a pedestal by the Australian public as Test captain.

He said: “I think that’s probably really

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2021-11-26T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-11-26T08:00:00.0000000Z

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