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Cummins, who led Australia to the World Test Championship title win in 2023, has won 11 matches as captain in the ongoing 2023-25 edition of the WTC.
Pat Cummins equals record of most wins as captain in a single edition of WTC. (Picture Credit: AFP)
Australia beat India by 6 wickets on Sunday (January 5) to win the fifth and final Test of the 2024-25 edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The Aussies were asked to chase down the target of 162 runs in the fourth innings of the match played at Sydney Cricket Ground, and they successfully achieved the objective against the Jasprit Bumrah-less Indian bowling attack in 27 overs for the loss of four wickets. Under-fire Usman Khawaja (41) top-scored for the Pat Cummins-led side in the second innings, and debutant Beau Webster, who also scored the winning runs, remained unbeaten on 39 runs from 34 balls.
The win in the Sydney Test not only helped Australia win the home series with a scoreline of 3-1, but it also ended the Baggy Greens’ decade-long wait of becoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy winners and also helped them book a place in the World Test Championship (WTC) final.
In the final of the 2023-25 edition of the WTC, which is scheduled to take place at Lord’s from June 11 to 15, Australia will face South Africa.
The win in the fifth Test played at Sydney Cricket Ground in three days was Australia’s 11th win in the ongoing WTC cycle, and it helped Pat Cummins equal Joe Root’s record of winning the most matches as captain in a single edition of WTC. Cummins, who has won 20 out of 33 WTC matches as captain, has won 11 out of 17 matches played so far in the 2023-25 edition of WTC.
Root, who left England’s Test captaincy in 2022, also won 11 matches as captain in the 2019-21 edition of WTC, but despite that, England failed to qualify for the WTC final.
In the list of captains with the most wins in a single edition of WTC, Cummins and Root are followed by Virat Kohli, who led India to 10 wins in the inaugural edition of the World Test Championship.
Australia is set to play three more matches in the ongoing edition of WTC, and Cummins will have a chance to overtake Root and become the sole owner of the No. 1 position.
Cummins, who is set to become a father for the second time in January, could have broken Root’s record later this month, but he is expected to miss the team’s upcoming two-match Test tour of Sri Lanka, which starts on January 29 in Galle.
