I was born with it: Pat Cummins on his leadership qualities
Jun 04, 2024
New Delhi [India], June 4 : Australia ODI skipper Pat Cummins believes that he was born with the quality of being calm while leading a side.
Cummins also led the Indian Premier League (IPL) side Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the 2024 season and had a stupendous success with the franchise, leading his team to the finals, where they lost to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on May 26.
The Aussie cricketer lifted the Orange Army from the bottom half of the table and changed their fortunes with a highly aggressive style of cricket, led by himself, openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma.
Cummins said that the more he has played cricket, the more he has 'mellowed' with such qualities.
He also pointed out that nowadays, he is focusing on his own game.
"I think to some degree I was born with it. I have always kind of had this 'shall be right' kind of attitude. The more I have played, the more I have mellowed a little bit in terms of not being as fiery, and you just want to concentrate on how to get the job done. As a young bowler I wanted to puff the chest out and really get into the opposition. Nowadays I'm a bit more concentrating on my own game, and as captain trying to navigate as calmly as possible our team to, hopefully, a victory. Maybe it is experience, maybe it is [that] I try and talk about calmness a lot, so if I'm captain and I'm not calm, well, I'll lose a bit of credibility with my team-mates," Cummins was quoted by ESPNcricinfo's The Cricket Monthly as saying.
"Look, I think so. On balance, when you are making so many decisions all the time, a level of calmness and consistency probably outweighs someone who's erratic, I would say," he added.
Cummins will be in action during the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 in the West Indies and USA. Australia is in Group B along with arch-rivals England, Oman, Scotland and Namibia.
