Pat Cummins has answered the criticism of his Test side with one message to his players: Australia are the best team in the world and should play like it. He said it to Gerard Whateley on SEN on the eve of the first Test against South Africa at Kingsmead, which starts on 9 October.
The noise has built since a nine-wicket home loss to Bangladesh in Darwin in August, followed by weeks of talk about an ageing squad.
“We are number one in the world and I think we are well and truly top of the World Test Championship points. That’s our message to the group: we should be very confident.”
Pat Cummins, speaking to Gerard Whateley on SEN, October 2026
Does the Australian team feel underestimated?
Captain Pat Cummins speaks to @GerardWhateley ahead of the First Test. Catch every ball live from Durban from 5:30pm AEDT tonight.
Listen to the full interview 👇
https://t.co/FRjffJHIeJ#SAvAUS https://t.co/9ik0KtjKYV
— SEN Cricket (@SEN_Cricket) October 8, 2026
On the surface, it is a captain hitting back. The word that matters is “group”, because this message was built for the dressing room, not the press box.
Insider Read
Pat Cummins On tour, you cannot switch the noise off. It arrives in a text from home, a question at a press conference, a headline someone drops into the team chat. A player out of runs reads every word, and soon the voice in his own head sounds like the commentators.
That is the player a captain is talking to when he quotes the table. Marnus Labuschagne walks out at Kingsmead with 39 completed innings since his last Test hundred. “We are number one” gives him a fact to argue back with when the doubt starts, and on a dry pitch where nothing happens for an hour, that is worth more than any technical tip.
The Criticism Cummins Is Answering
Darwin was the low point. Bangladesh won their first Test against Australia on Australian soil, Australia were bowled out for 198 in the first innings, and they did not win a session. A two-day win in Mackay levelled the series 1-1, but the questions stayed.
| Criticism | Who said it |
|---|---|
| Australia “has not looked up to the mark of Test cricket level” | Ricky Ponting, SEN, day one of the Darwin Test |
| “We have an old team, we need a bit of youth” | Robert Craddock, SENQ Breakfast, 1 October |
| Selectors “going left field with a 34-year-old” | Craddock, on Nic Maddinson’s call-up |
Injuries have added to it. Cameron Green is out with an abdominal strain and Josh Inglis has a fractured finger, which led to late call-ups for Maddinson and Sam Harper.
Labuschagne kept his place despite his run. Cummins has backed him publicly, and he made a century in the warm-up game in Potchefstroom.
Australia start the series top of the World Test Championship, with South Africa second. The three Tests run from 9 to 13 October, 18 to 22 October and 27 to 31 October.
Cummins goes in with no fitness concerns, after what he called nine months of planning built around this series.
“Physically I feel really fresh. I feel great.”
Pat Cummins, pre-Test media, Durban, 8 October 2026
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