Pat Cummins entered the history books with Rohit Sharma's wicket in the fourth Test match between India and Australia on Monday, December 30. The Australian captain put the hosts in a dominant position with an early impact on Day 5 and also shattered a major Test captaincy record.
Cummins gave Australia a brilliant start by removing Indian captain Rohit Sharma in the first session. This was the sixth instance where Cummins dismissed Rohit Sharma in Tests when both players were also playing as captains.
No other captain had been dismissed by an opponent captain on more than five occasions in Test cricket history. The former English captain Ted Dexter was dismissed by Australian captain Richie Benaud 5 times, last in 1963. Pakistan's Imran Khan had also dismissed legendary Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar 5 times in Tests.
Cummins has managed to get better off Rohit in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy on four occasions in 7 innings. Indian opener has managed to score just 11 runs off Cummins in the ongoing series, and overall 30 runs.
Captain dismissing an opposition captain most times in Tests
- 6 - Rohit Sharma by Pat Cummins
- 5 - Ted Dexter by Richie Benaud
- 5 - Sunil Gavaskar by Imran Khan
- 4 - Gulabrai Ramchand by Richie Benaud
- 4 - Clive Lloyd by Kapil Dev
- 4 - Peter May by Richie Benaud
Meanwhile, Cummins also bowled out KL Rahul and dismissed Yashasvi Jaiswal to play a big role in bowling out India to 155 in their second innings. Cummins also made an impact with a bat by scoring crucial 90 runs across two innings in this series. He was awarded the Player of the Match for his all-round heroics in Australia's huge 185-run win in the Boxing Day Test.
The Australian captain also equalled Ravichandran Ashwin's record for the most wickets in World Test Championship history and is tipped favourite to reach the 200-wicket mark in the next match in Sydney starting on January 3. Cummins, Ashwin and Nathan Lyon currently share the top leading wicket-taker chart with 195 wickets each in WTC history.
