Captaincy is one of the most difficult things to do in cricket. Managing your own self is a tedious job in itself, then one can only imagine the burden of managing an entire team. Yet the world has seen some great captains. Some of them are great as leaders, while some of them are great a players. Only a handful of them are great at both, playing as well as leading a side. And Australians lead the chart of such captains. Steve Waugh, Greg Chapell, Ricky Ponting are a few to name. But one name stands equal to all these, and yet is not considered to be a legend, when his achievements clearly state the same, which is Pat Cummins.

One can be crazy to see a man lift the ICC title twice within a period of 5 months against the same opposition. But Cummins has done it all. And notably he has done it with a team which was not considered to be equivalent of the giant Aussies of 2000's. In Aussie history books, he might not be a legend, as they have a habit of winning the ICC titles, but looking at what he has achieved, any other nation would've turned him into their hero. And rightly so, he is one of the most overachieved yet underrated captains of Australia. And his journey from losing a finger in his childhood, to being a legend is truly amazing.

Born in the sport loving nation of Australia, Pat was always fond of the game. Not many know that the spearhead, who uses his fingers cleverly for his variations, lost his finger in an accident. It happened when he was a kid, and two of his fingers were stuck in the gap when a door was closed. He lost his middle finger and index finger in the same. But he didn't give up on the game. In spite of not having a natural finger he turned out to be one of the finest bowlers of his nation first, and then the world. Pat, who made his debut around a decade back, didn't quite impress initially, but gradually he proved his worth and showed what an asset he is for the team. His accuracy was the key for his success, and in spite of having almost no swing, he cleverly deceived the batters with variation in pace and line length.

He was a great bowler without a doubt, but he was far from being a captain. When Aaron Finch retired as a captain, it was thought that either of Smith or Warner would be reassigned the task to lead the side. The duo had established themselves yet again after their sandpaper gate scandal, and they were yet again ruling the run charts. So it was quite obvious to see the same happen. But a country like Australia takes decisions, without taking the past contribution of the players. And so, they stuck to their word of not giving the leadership to these two, and announced that infact Patrick Cummins would be leading the side. For once, most of the people thought that he is going to be an accidental captain, like Tim Paine, but he turned out to be a hero for them instead.

He carried the burden of the team successfully and achieved what most of their own captains couldn't achieve within a short period of just 6 months. He set his priorities straight, and decided to not focus on the IPL in 2023, as he wanted to be fit for WTC final, Ashes and then the World Cup. And he won it all. A staggering win at WTC final, a convincing win in the Ashes with himself contributing with both bat and ball, and finally lifting the 2023 World cup, he made sure that he is way more than what people think of him. He publicly said that he would love to silence a crowd of 1.3 lakh people in Ahmedabad, and he did what he said. And he made it sure that he is contributing as a player equally as he is doing it by leading the side.

It's pleasing to see how he has managed to be so successful, and also its a question worth wondering. For those who wonder, the answer lies in his ability to read the game beautifully. He is a fine analyst of the game, and he is observant about every single player he plays against. His homework is top notch. Which is why he sets the field perfectly, and so does he bowl as per plan to trap the batter. If one closely looked at Shreyas Iyer's wicket in world Cup final, one can understand how he set a field for backfoot and then got Iyer our by bowling a bowl for frontfoot, one will understand his ability to manuvoure field. And him bowling to Surya in the same match, with Surya's favourite length but extreme pace variations, goes on to show how good homework he does.

All these qualities prove that he is a born leader. And no matter which team he will play for, he will make sure the team excels. The same is happening with Sunrisers Hyderabad, who were reeling backwards till the last season, but have now looked different altogether in this season under Cummins. It's his monster mentality, combined with the Aussie genes which make him lethal for any opposition. His mindset is the key to his success, and his homework is the reason for his confidence. His recent remarks on the top 4 for T20 World Cup demonstrated the same, when he said that Australia is surely going to be there, and he doesn't care about who the rest 3 teams would be to reach the semi-finals.

No player would've said the same with so much of confidence as he did. Maybe Ricky Ponting would've, but he boasted a team of stars, whereas Cummins makes stars out of his rookie team who later win ICC titles for their nation. And one would hardly be surprised to see the same happen ahead as well. He is undoubtedly the best captain of this generation, and certainly one of the most underrated legends for captaincy of all time. If he was a part of India, Pakistan or Bangladesh, the fans would have started to worship him already stating him to be the best captain ever to have played the game. Whether it will be true eventually going ahead or not, only time will tell. But one can be assured that he ends up on a very high note going ahead in his career. Today, on his 30th birthday, we convey our best wishes to him and hope to see him do even more wonders on the field.