Cape Town: Pat Cummins has insisted Steve Smith was confident of getting up to play in the Newlands Test, after the vice-captain had given an account suggesting his neck issue was more serious than it had first appeared.
As he picked through the wreckage of a heavy defeat to South Africa in consecutive Tests to lose the world number one ranking in Test cricket, Cummins conceded more changes would be required to the team following repeated batting problems both before and during this tour.
He looked somewhat stunned to be told his former teammate David Warner had labelled Saturday’s batting display as “disgraceful” and “un-Australian”, saying “I don’t even know what to make of that”.
But Cummins was more forthcoming about Smith, and how it came to be that he withdrew an hour before play, forcing Josh Inglis to be rushed into the side. Smith's account, as told to freelance cricket writer and broadcaster Bharat Sundaresan, had made it sound as though the 37-year-old had always been facing an uphill battle.
"Yeah, I mean, Steve himself was quite confident that he was going to get up, so obviously we chat to him a fair bit, and you know he wanted to give it right to the last minute, but he was feeling relatively good about it," Cummins said.
“Obviously, he had a few hits, so you know I think we were all really confident. We still knew that he needed to pass a fitness test in the morning, and it wasn’t a dead certainty.
“But yeah, unfortunately, he just didn’t feel quite right… He knows his body better than anyone else, so I was definitely disappointed. He’s the best player in the world, vice captain, all those things. But the show goes on. Someone like Josh Inglis was lined up as well, just in case. So it was all good. We moved on pretty quickly.”
Smith had told Sundaresan before play on day three that he would not have been able to play without trying a pain-killing injection in his neck on match morning, which ultimately had the effect of making him feel worse.
“I asked him about the bandage that he had there. So, that was because he had taken an injection, like a pain blocker, to see if that does any help,” Sundaresan had said. “If anything, it went the other way. It made it worse, he said. And that made him kind of wobbly on his feet.
“I asked him about the moment when he tried to check the firmness of the pitch, almost toppled over. And he said he just hasn’t been able to really move that beyond a point. And it’s been really giving him a lot of grief. He hasn’t slept too well, or he hadn’t slept well for the first two days leading into that Test match, and definitely not on that first night.
“I asked him whether he could have played without the injection. And he feels, nah, it was that bad that he couldn’t have done anything. And he said, ‘Every time I bent down, there was a shooting pain that was going up to my neck’. So, there’s no way he could have fielded at slip or anywhere on day one.”
Smith is now recuperating with a view to being fit to play in the first Test against New Zealand in December, which Cummins admitted would likely see further team changes. Marnus Labuschagne seems certain to be dropped.
“I think it’s fair to be asking those questions. So we’ll be asking them internally as well,” Cummins said. “We are a very good side, but I think we need to get a little bit better if we want to get back to number one and where we think we can be. So yeah, maybe that’s a change of style. Maybe it’s a change of personnel in some instances.
“I think we’re a better side than what we have been playing lately. So, whether that makes us the top team or not, you know, obviously it doesn’t at the moment, so I think there are clear improvements to be made. I thought they outplayed us. Obviously, it’s a home series for them, but the conditions aren’t a million miles away from what we can get in Australia.”
Cummins also addressed his own failure to have an impact on the series after the first Test in Durban, noting that most statistical measures of his performance suggested he had not fallen away, merely that the wickets had not come.
“I was really happy with how I bowled and batted in Durban,” he said. “To be honest, I don’t think it changed much really. The last two Tests, ball speed, false shot percentage, all those things stayed relatively similar.
“I’ve had series where I’ve felt a little bit injured or technique or whatever, and I haven’t taken wickets, and you feel a bit further away from it. But I was actually overall generally happy with how I bowled and tried lots of different things on relatively benign wickets, but just couldn’t get it done.”
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