Pat Cummins is leading Australia in the ongoing three-match Test series against the West Indies. The 32-year-old fast bowler picked up two wickets for the Aussies in the first innings of the first Test currently underway at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados. He opened his wicket account on Wednesday (June 25) by dismissing Keacy Carty for 20 runs in the third session and then on Thursday (June 26) got rid of his West Indies counterpart Roston Chase. Chase, who is playing his first series as full-time captain of the West Indies Test team, was trapped in front of the wickets by Cummins.
The wicket of Chase helped Cummins break Richie Benaud’s record of 138 Test wickets for Australia as captain. Benaud led Australia in Test cricket from 1958 to 1963 and picked up 138 wickets in 28 Tests. On the other hand, Cummins has 139 wickets to his name in 35 Tests so far as Australia’s captain.
In the list of captains with the most wickets in Test cricket, Cummins is now only behind Imran Khan. Imran led Pakistan in a total of 48 Test matches from 1982 to 1992 and accounted for the dismissal of 187 batters.
For Australia, apart from Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and all-rounder Beau Webster also picked up two wickets each in the first innings, and three Windies batters were sent back to the pavilion by fast bowler Mitchell Starc.
