James Anderson throws his weight behind Pat Cummins to lead Australia: I think more bowlers should be captain

Pat Cummins will be good at leading Australia and should become their Test captain, veteran England fast bowler James Anderson has said. Anderson said that the only issue with a fast bowler becoming captain is that he may not get any time to switch off from the game after a day is done, which is something that the 39-year-old said that they need.

“I think more bowlers should be captain. The only issue then is trying to get the time off – when you’re off the field, you want to switch off, whereas if you’re captain you’ve got to watch the game and be in it and you can’t switch off maybe as much,” Anderson is quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald.

“Bowlers do think a lot about the game. We are thinking cricketers now. I think he’d be good at it. You can see he leads brilliantly in the team. He’s a leader of the bowling attack and you can see he’s got that ability, so why not give him a chance?

“There are lots of arguments why it would suit to have a bowler as captain, but it’s just not the done thing, is it? Captains like to look good at first slip and look like they’re making all the field-position changes and doing all the good stuff. But I’m all for it,” said Anderson.

With Tim Paine stepping down as captain lewd messages he sent to a former female colleague in Cricket Tasmania in 2017 came to light, Australia are scrambling to appoint a new Test skipper just days before the start of the Ashes. The series is set to start on Brisbane on December 8. While former captain Steve Smith and batsman Marnus Labuschagne are also seen as contenders, Cummins, who was vice-captain, is widely seen as the frontrunner to take over.