19 November – Ahmedabad – Australia Captain Pat Cummins post-match press conference

Pat-Cummins-19-11-23

[Reporter:]

What does that mean to you?

[Pat Cummins:]

That’s huge, I think that’s the pinnacle of international cricket, winning a one-day World Cup. Especially over here in India, in front of a crowd like this. Yeah, that’s huge. Yeah, it’s been a big year for everyone, but our cricket team has been here in India, Ashes, World Test Championship and top it off with this is just huge and these are the moments that you’ll remember for the rest of your life.

[Reporter:]

So why is it the pinnacle?

[Pat Cummins:]

It’s just every international team comes together. You only get a shot at it every four years. Even if you have a ten-year career, you might only get two chances at it. And yeah, it’s just the whole cricket world stops with this World Cup. So, it doesn’t get any better.

[Reporter:]

You always spoke about the 2015 World Cup being a highlight of your career. But to win a World Cup in India, this stadium, with so many people, and the silence you spoke about as well, can you just take us through that journey today, from getting to the ground to now?

[Pat Cummins:]

Yeah, I mean I always like to say I’m pretty relaxed but I was a little bit nervous this morning you know just pacing around waiting for it to get started just seeing the sea of blue in the hotel getting nearer the ground and seeing the sea of blue, walking, making its way to the ground, all the cars parked with their selfie cameras out, you kind of knew you were walking into something pretty special. And then to walk out for the toss and just see 130,000 blue Indian shirts, it’s an experience you’ll never forget. Awesome day and the good thing was they weren’t too noisy for most of it.

[Reporter:]

Now that it’s run and won, what did you really think of the pitch and what was behind the decision to bowl first given how well it worked out?

[Pat Cummins:]

The pitch played pretty well actually, it was quite slow and basically no bounce, but I don’t think the bounce was anything different to anywhere else in the tournament. It probably didn’t spin as much as I thought it would. Yesterday it looked really dry, but it was quite firm today. Yeah, the wicket was fine really. And then the toss, we were kind of umming and ahhing right up until the toss really – but I thought you know half a chance of the wicket getting better tonight and you know in a World Cup game you can make a mistake bowling and it doesn’t really matter too much, but if you make a mistake batting and you’re under pressure it can be fatal so I just felt like it was the right time to go out and have a bowl.

[Reporter:]

And just given how big a year it’s been for you on so many fronts, how much are you, how are you feeling just I suppose emotionally, yeah, I suppose given the spectrum of emotions you felt this year?

[Pat Cummins:]

Yeah, I mean at this moment just incredibly proud really of the year we’ve had. I’ve obviously had a really big year. I know my family at home is watching, just got a message from Dad saying he’s had a lot of 4am wake ups, not going to bed until 4am, so he’s as pumped as anything. So yeah, you sacrifice a lot to play for Australia and everyone in the team has and we’ve spent a lot of this year away but we do it for these moments and my wife and two girls are probably asleep, hopefully asleep, but they’re all pumped, they do the journey with us. So, everyone’s got their own story, but there’s a lot of proud people out there in our team.

[Reporter:]

But as a leader, we saw very good leadership from you, especially going back to Afghanistan when you made a good supporting role with Maxwell. How do you feel about the leadership throughout the tournament and how do you rate Travis Head’s innings today?

[Pat Cummins:]

Travis Head was phenomenal. I think I said it on stage, I mean I think a lot of credit should also go to Andrew McDonald and George Bailey, the selectors, to take a punt. He had a broken finger, a broken hand for the half of the tournament, but to keep him in the squad was a huge risk. And the medical team were fantastic, obviously, to get him into a place where he could perform. So that was a big risk. I think we could have been made to look really silly if that didn’t pay off, but you got to take those risks to win a tournament. And Trav, the player we’ve seen in Test cricket, he just, he epitomized everything I want out of a cricket team. He takes the game on, he plays with a smile, he just puts the pressure right back onto the opposition and he’s just great fun to be around. So, I couldn’t be happier for Trav.

[Reporter:]

As Australians you give a lot of emphasis to Test cricket and also Ashes. As a captain you have won the World Test Championship, as a captain you have won this World Cup. Which is the best moment or it will come when you beat England in Ashes?

[Pat Cummins:]

This is, no doubt. The World Test Championship was huge like again another two-year campaign – but yet an ODI World Cup – it’s the rich history I think and to come out of a place like India where you know the conditions are so different to back home it’s pretty gruelling, you know, 11 games in whatever it was, 5 – 6 weeks but yeah, the way the group stuck together and got through it and yeah holding the medal is – that’s the pinnacle

[Reporter:]

You touched on Trav there can you just kind of take us inside the umming and aahing about whether you would pick him up did you ever think you might leave him out and on a similar front with Marnus what you guys left him out of an 18-man squad or whatever it was a few months ago. Can you kind of take us inside that?

[Pat Cummins:]

Yeah I mean probably start with the Marnus one, we wanted to be pretty brave this World Cup we didn’t want to kind of limp into the semi-finals, we wanted to be the team that could score 400 and you saw that the way we kind of shaped up with Trav, Warner and then having Marshy at number three, We wanted to be really aggressive and then a couple of our all-rounders are obviously aggressive to finish up the inning so we would rather fail that way but then Marnus just showed his class and in South Africa you had to pick him, he was fantastic and he was playing a different style to probably what he did for the first start of his ODI career and it was paying off and we know he’s a gun so you had to try and find room for him. And then the Trav Head one was, we thought his World Cup was straight over. It wasn’t until I think it was about the next night afterwards where Ronnie came up to me. He’s like, I haven’t slept all last night. I think we’re going to keep him. We’re going to take the risk. He might be right for the Netherlands and then if we’re going to make the finals and we want to win the World Cup I think he needs to be there for the finals – so yeah, it’s his idea and yeah again great work by the medical team and it means you probably don’t have the second spinner in your squad, which is a risk, but yeah, obviously paid off.

[Reporter:]

Just on today’s game, when you got Virat out, was that about as sweet a moment as you’ve had on a cricket field?

[Pat Cummins:]

Yeah, I think so, yeah. Yeah, we did take a second in the huddle just to acknowledge the silence that was going around the crowd. Yeah, it just felt like it was one of those days where it was all made for him to score another hundred like he normally does and yeah that was satisfying

[Reporter:]

You’ll remember you went to see Bruce Springsteen I think during the Ashes right at the start of the summer to prepare for one of the days of the Ashes what was last night’s preparation?

[Pat Cummins:]

Yeah, the Boss wasn’t playing at Ahmedabad last night – What did we do last night? Very chilled we had a team meeting and then yeah, we just few of the boys sat around had dinner and then played about half an hour of Call of Duty. That’s about my limit. And then I hop off and let the real boys go and get a few wins.

[Reporter:]

As a World Cup winning captain, what will be your suggestion to the men who matter about the format, about this format, the ODI format, the future of ODI format?

[Pat Cummins:]

Yeah, I mean it’s hard to say. I must say, maybe because we won, but I did fall in love with ODI again this World Cup. I think the scenario where every game really matters, it does mean a bit different to just a bilateral. So yeah, I don’t know. I mean, the World Cup’s got such rich history, I’m sure it’s going to be around for a long time. Yeah, there’s so many wonderful games, so many wonderful stories within this last couple of months. So, I think there’s definitely a place.

[Reporter:]

When Allan Border won the first World Cup for Australia in India in 1987, the Australian players were not well versed with Indian spinner-friendly wickets. As of now, almost every Australian player is playing in IPL. So do you think that it helps to be very well acquainted with the nature and mood of the Indian wickets, especially the spinning-friendly wickets. Does it help?

[Pat Cummins:]

Yeah, it does help. I mean, in white ball cricket, you still don’t get spinning wickets all that often, particularly in IPL. But for sure, it helps. I think I’ve said it a few times. Pretty much everyone in our eleven has probably played more white ball cricket in India in the last five or ten years than we have in Australia so – no doubt that helps.

[Reporter:]

There’s been a couple of years with Australia where they had a really tough time going through it and yet you’ve come out, you’ve won a World Test Championship, you’ve now won a World Cup. Is it fair to say that Australia’s back on the perch as the best side in the world?

[Pat Cummins:]

Yeah, I mean I don’t know, it’s probably for others to judge that but yeah, couldn’t be prouder of the team for the last few years. We’ve had some tough series but we’ve won some amazing series as well and everyone stood up and we feel like we’ve got a great red ball team and the white ball team has won two trophies in the last few years so it’s, yeah, things are looking pretty rosy.

[Reporter:]

I just wanted to know, the making of a champion team, you’ve been involved with this team for a long time, how has it been, how tough is it to go out there and do the job every time?

[Pat Cummins:]

Yeah, I mean it’s really tough because you’re playing against the best teams in the world and every team wants to achieve the same thing. It’s really tough. I always keep saying about our team, we’ve got a lot of experience and we’ve got many different characters which is great, you want that in a team. But everyone buys in. Everyone does what the team needs. Everyone’s there to look after each other. And I think that’s something that’s contributed to a few of our successes over the years.

[Reporter:]

Yeah. What was the thinking behind giving short spells to your bowlers, all seven bowlers, except you who bowled five overs, one long spell? All of the bowlers bowled either one over spell or two over spell. What was the thinking behind that?

[Pat Cummins:]

Yeah, in, say, Test cricket, when you’re trying to find a wicket, you might change some fielders and some bowling plans. Feels like in one day cricket, you don’t have as many options. So, we thought maybe the way to upset the rhythm, rather than setting some wacky fields, is to just go one over spells. So yeah, it seemed to kind of take the manoeuvre to settle in, so we just kept going and tried pretty much everyone there for an over and everyone did a great job. It makes kind of sequencing in the back ten overs a little bit easier as well when you know you’ve got plenty of resources to draw on.

[Reporter:]

Did it help that Australia had faced more crisis situations than India? Did it help in conquering the fear of failure in the final?

[Pat Cummins:]

Hard to say. You know, it’s really hard to be standoffish in a final. But we made it really clear in the group we’re all in on making sure we weren’t the team that stood off today we wanted to take the game on play the way that got us to the final and maybe that comes from playing other finals before also maybe missing out on some other finals in different tournaments but yeah, I can’t speak for the opposition but the group today was as confident going to finals as I’ve seen the team.