{"id":937172,"date":"2026-10-22T18:04:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T18:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/937172\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T18:04:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T18:04:24","slug":"australia-vs-south-africa-pat-cummins-concedes-change-coming-after-second-test-thrashing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/937172\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia vs South Africa: Pat Cummins concedes change coming after second Test thrashing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Daniel<\/p>\n

October 23, 2026 \u2014 3:45am<\/p>\n

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Gqeberha: Australia\u2019s captain Pat Cummins has admitted his team were uncompetitive in a humiliating innings defeat to South Africa at St George\u2019s Park, and conceded the selectors will consider the positions of several players for the series decider in Cape Town.<\/p>\n

Cummins did not shy away from the prospect of multiple changes, after a hiding by the Proteas<\/a> that will rank highly among the poorest displays of his captaincy, even acknowledging Vernon Philander\u2019s claim that the day four batting had been \u201cgutless\u201d in losing 13 wickets in a day<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"PatPat Cummins faces the music.Daniel Brettig<\/p>\n

Travis Head\u2019s century and Scott Boland\u2019s admirable 166-ball defiance stood in sharp contrast to a litany of unwise shots from others, leading to defeat in little more than three full days of play after having the hosts 6-110 early on the third day.<\/p>\n

\u201cDisappointment for sure. I think we were nowhere near our best, across the board really. Clearly need to be a lot better than that. We want to compete,\u201d Cummins said. \u201cI think you\u2019ve got to find a way in Test cricket. It\u2019s not always going to be easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou saw today with Travis and Scotty, sometimes it\u2019s going to be about getting through the tough spells, sticking to your method, and I think we went away from that on day four. A couple [of] loose shots when we could have hung around and kind of waited to get the game to come to us a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nic Maddinson, Beau Webster and Marnus Labuschagne are the trio most squarely under the selectors\u2019 microscope, as all looked either outclassed or unable to lock into a Test match batting rhythm. Labuschagne\u2019s recent sequence of scores<\/a> between 10 and 50 has been particularly damaging to the team because players making starts are expected to make the most of them.<\/p>\n

Editor’s pick\"Australia\u2019s<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think the hardest thing about opening or batting three is actually getting yourself in,\u201d Cummins said of Labuschagne. \u201cBall\u2019s normally doing a fair bit. You\u2019ve got fresh bowlers, and he\u2019s actually doing the hard bit. He\u2019s getting to 30s. I think he\u2019s got to find a way to turn those into bigger scores.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, 30s aren\u2019t going to win you too many matches, but yeah, I don\u2019t think … it\u2019s certainly not a technique error. It\u2019s maybe a couple of decision makings, some decisions that you know maybe the game demanded something a little bit differently. So again, we\u2019ll work on that on the next couple [of] days.\u201d<\/p>\n

More widely, Cummins said he and the selectors needed to decide whether it was time to stop persisting with some members of the team. The decision to jettison Jake Weatherald after the first Test against Bangladesh in Darwin now looks a harsh one given Maddinson\u2019s returns, while Cameron Green and Josh Inglis will join Cooper Connolly in pushing for inclusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the challenge. It\u2019s not a perfect science,\u201d Cummins said. \u201cDo you give someone one more game, or do you feel like now is the right time to make a move? So that\u2019s what will be spoken about over the next few days. I think we will probably have Cam Green and Josh Inglis available for next week.<\/p>\n

\"PatPat Cummins is bowled.Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s looking like that, so I\u2019m sure \u2026 their names will get thrown around as well when we try and work out 11. But it\u2019s always that delicate balance. Does it feel like someone\u2019s just about to turn the corner, and they\u2019re going to be away, or does it now feel like the right time for a change-up?\u201d<\/p>\n

One change that will be weighed up is Nathan Lyon\u2019s return<\/a>. Cummins looked agonised when asked about Boland\u2019s place in the team having been by far the team\u2019s best contributor this week, while Josh Hazlewood may need rest after his battles with illness during the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good question. I don\u2019t think you can do much more,\u201d Cummins said of Boland. \u201cI mean, five-for, pick of the bowlers. You know how gritty he was with this batting innings. Even put his hand up on day three to go and be nightwatchman after he just bowled 20 overs in a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t love that bloke any more. He\u2019s such a champion. So again, we\u2019ll get to Cape Town. We\u2019ll have a look, see how everyone pulls up, all those things. But he had a fantastic week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Article\"It<\/a><\/p>\n

As for Lyon, Cummins said he would be closely considered after accepting his demotion with more equanimity than previously.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s any secret that he\u2019s not too happy when he\u2019s not playing. But I think he understands. So he was great. He\u2019s a big boy. Accepts it. No worries,\u201d Cummins said. \u201cI think the other layer to it is that you saw the first two days here, big clouds. It felt like spin wasn\u2019t going to play much part in the first half of the game, and it didn\u2019t really play much part in the second.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you\u2019re talking about Scotty Boland, who he\u2019s coming up against. So I think those factors all matter. We\u2019ll get there [to Cape Town], we\u2019ll talk about conditions, how people are tracking, what we think, you know, how the game\u2019s going to pan out, and like every Test, his name will be front and centre.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Close\"DanielDaniel Brettig<\/a> is The Age’s chief cricket writer and the author of several books on cricket.Connect via X<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October 23, 2026 \u2014 3:45am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":937173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-937172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=937172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/937173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=937172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=937172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=937172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}