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Former Indian wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik has reserved big praise for Pat Cummins and said that the 31-year-old Australian is the most aggressive cricketer on the planet right now.
Dinesh Karthik ignores Rohit Sharma and picks Pat Cummins as No. 1 captain in the world right now. (Picture Credit: PTI)
Former Indian wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik ignored Rohit Sharma, who led India to the T20 World Cup title win in June 2024, and instead picked 31-year-old Australian star Pat Cummins as the No. 1 captain in the world right now. Cummins, who was appointed as Australia’s captain in 2021, led the Baggy Greens to World Test Championship and ODI World Cup title wins in 2023 and also helped Australia end the decade-long wait for a Test series win over India. Under Cummins’ captaincy, Australia, despite losing the first Test by 295 runs in Perth, managed to get the better of India in the 2024-25 edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and win the series with a scoreline of 3-1.
Impressed by Cummins’ captaincy, Karthik said that the 31-year-old Australian is the most aggressive cricketer on the planet right now, and he has the ability to lead a group of men.
Speaking in the latest episode of HeyCB with DK, Karthik, who retired from Indian cricket last year, said, “I feel he (Cummins) is the most aggressive cricketer on the planet right now. And he doesn’t do it with talking or abusing. He does it with his body language, the way he handles the media, postmatches, and prematches. He has in it, he has in him the ability to lead a group of men, and for me, he is the number one captain in the world right now.”
In the recently concluded five-match Test series against India, Cummins played all five matches and picked up 25 wickets in addition to scoring 159 runs with the bat in eight innings.
Cummins, who is the most successful captain in World Test Championship history with 20 wins to his name, will miss Australia’s upcoming two-match Test series against Sri Lanka due to personal reasons. In his absence, Steve Smith will lead the Baggy Greens in the away series, which starts on January 29 in Galle.
Cummins is also a doubtful starter for Australia in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, which is set to start on February 19 in Karachi. Cummins is set to undergo scans on a sore ankle, and the scan results will determine whether he plays in the Champions Trophy or not.
