He’s been among the premier fast bowlers of his era for years – but maybe now it really is time to also hail Australia captain Pat Cummins for being a genuine world-class allrounder too.
For in the first ICC rankings update for 2025 following Cummins’ tremendous Boxing Day Test success against India, the skipper has not only risen from fourth to third in the bowling list with his six-wicket haul in the dramatic win at the MCG.
Cummins, at the age of 31, also soared four spots to a career-high third-place in the Test allrounder rankings thanks to his valuable knocks of 49 and 41 that helped his side to their 184-run triumph.
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His ranking of 283 points has bettered the fifth position he attained in August 2019 and puts him behind only Bangladesh’s Mehidy Hasan (284) and India’s Ravindra Jadeja (405) in the list of top allrounders, while both innings have also helped him enter the list of the top-100 batters, in 97th place.
Cummins, last year’s Sir Garfield Sobers award winner as world men’s cricketer of the year, took three wickets in each innings to edge him into third position in the bowling charts with 837 rating points.
Pat Cummins has moved to No.3 in the Test allrounder rankings. Credit: Getty That’s six points behind teammate Josh Hazlewood with India superstar Jasprit Bumrah moving on to highest ever points-rating achieved by an India bowler at the top of the rankings.
Bumrah’s nine-wicket match haul in Melbourne ensured the pace ace soared from his previous tied-high of 904 points with Ravichandran Ashwin to a new landmark of 907.
It puts him joint-17th in the all-time list of Test bowlers, in a list headed by two Englishmen – Sydney Barnes (932) and George Lohmann (931) – who played more than a century ago.
Cummins and Glenn McGrath are the top Aussies on that list, in joint-fifth on 914 points at their peak.
Steve Smith has moved up three places in the Test batting rankings to seventh after his 140 against India (763 points), two spots behind the leading Australian Travis Head (780) while English maestro Joe Root still leads the way on 895.
Meanwhile, Australia are on guard for a Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli revival in Sydney, with Alex Carey warning neither of India’s most senior players can be written off.
The Indians were given a day off on Wednesday, meaning their only training session between Melbourne and Sydney will be an optional one on Thursday.
Friday’s fifth Test looms as doubly crucial for India, with a win needed to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and keep their World Test Championship hopes alive.
But it is also important for Rohit’s future.
So bad has his form been this summer there are genuine question marks on whether India’s captain will even be in the team at the SCG.
The right-hander is yet to pass 10 in any of his five innings this series, with the run of failures also coming off the back of a poor showing against New Zealand.
It would be a bold call from India’s chief selector Ajit Agarkar to push for the 37-year-old to miss in Sydney, given Rohit’s status as captain.
But his batting has become an issue, particularly with Shubman Gill left on the sidelines in Melbourne.
Kohli is also enduring a rotten run, his unbeaten 100 in the second innings in Perth now sitting alongside scores of 5, 7, 11, 3, 36 and 5.
In all six of Kohli’s dismissals he edged balls outside off stump, while Rohit has fallen victim to his opposing captain Pat Cummins in four of his five innings.
But Carey said it would be wrong to suggest Australia’s bowlers have a mental edge over the pair.
Alex Carey is not prepared to write off struggling veterans Rohith Sharma and Virat Kohli. Credit: AAP “I don’t think I can put it that way,” Carey said.
“You could also make that argument for a Steve Smith or a Marnus (Labuschagne) against Bumrah early.
“Champions of the game find ways to come out and perform, and they are champions. We have to be on our toes to not let them back into the series.”
Beyond Rohit and Kohli, India’s batting appears far more formidable with Yashasvi Jaiswal showing signs of recapturing his promising best in Melbourne.
The 23-year-old’s crucial fourth-innings dismissal continues to remain as a sticking point, after replays showed a clear deflection off his gloves and into Carey’s hands.
The absence of a spike on snicko has since prompted BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla to claim Jaiswal was “clearly not out”.
Rohit admitted after the final-hour loss Jaiswal was likely out, but claimed India “more often than not” were on the wrong side of technology when it is not 100 per cent.
But Carey said he knew immediately Jaiswal had hit the ball.
“I had no doubt. I think the evidence was really clear that the third umpire made the correct decision,” Carey said.
“Snicko has been a bit funny this series, so with all the evidence you get, you put it all together and I think the third umpire did a great job.”