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Chelsea are set to try and ship out a host of different fringe players over the coming two months, as BlueCo look to trim their wage bill and keep in line with PSR regulations by raising funds.

Enzo Maresca’s side have done excellently to navigate their way around financial roadblocks to strengthen the squad consistently, ever since Clearlake Capital’s takeover of the club three years ago.

Chelsea looking to negotiate cut-price deal for £68m star who Maresca wants

The Blues appear poised to open talks.

ByEmilio Galantini Jun 25, 2025

However, if they’re not successful in offloading certain squad members, this task will be made all the more difficult.

Cole Palmer

7.33

Moises Caicedo

7.02

Enzo Fernández

6.95

Nicolas Jackson

6.88

Noni Madueke

6.82

via WhoScored

Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell, who are on a combined salary of around £525,000-per-week, are back at Cobham after their 2024/2025 loan spells at Arsenal and Crystal Palace respectively.

Chelsea will want to find new homes for the England international duo sooner rather than later, and they could be joined by Lesley Ugochukwu, João Félix, David Datro Fofana, Carney Chukwuemeka, Armando Broja and Axel Disasi, who are all thought to be on the club’s ‘for sale’ list (The Athletic).

Chelsea could even sell Noni Madueke this summer, despite the Englishman being called one of Maresca’s “best players”, while striker Nicolas Jackson’s future is also up in the air.

There is also the curious case of Renato Veiga, who left Chelsea for Juventus on a loan deal midway through the season, mainly due to his determination to play as a centre-back rather than a full-back in Maresca’s system.

“I had a chat with Renato. I told him playing in the position he’s playing with us, it’s given him the chance to join the national team and created speculation around him, which only happens when you’re playing well,” said Maresca on Veiga’s dissatisfaction in the full-back role earlier this season.

“If there is a player that wants to play in just one position, they are going to struggle. They have to learn to play in different positions because it’s a good thing for the player and the club.”

Renato Veiga "surprised" by Chelsea decision with sale possible

As per journalist Graeme Bailey, after returning from his loan spell at Juve, Veiga was left “very surprised” by Chelsea’s decision to omit him from the Club World Cup squad.

What’s more, it hasn’t been ruled out that the defender could be one of a five-man defensive exodus before deadline day – with Veiga, Trevoh Chalobah, Tosin, Benoit Badiashile and Disasi all on the chopping block.

“It’s a fascinating situation with Veiga, he was very surprised he wasn’t included in the Club World Cup squad,” said Bailey.

“There were indications from Chelsea that he would get a chance in a left-sided centre-back role — but Chelsea have so many centre-backs it’s staggering, and they still want more.

“It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that Chalobah, Tosin, Badiashile, Disasi and Veiga could all be sold.

“People keep asking why Chelsea can spend so much money, well, there’s five reasons why PSR isn’t a concern.

“But Veiga had a really good time at Juventus, playing at centre-back. And that’s why he left Chelsea on loan in the first place, he didn’t want to be a left-back, even if he was quite good at it.

“Chelsea were happy with him on the left but he turned up at Stamford Bridge wanting to be a centre-back. Now he’s gone to Juventus, played well, and he thought he’d done enough to warrant a spot at the Club World Cup to prove himself as a centre-back.”

Arsenal have now seemingly held some initial talks over signing a Real Madrid star, with sporting director Andrea Berta looking to the Bernabeu for potential reinforcements this summer.

Arsenal set for busy first summer window under Berta

According to reliable media sources, like Fabrizio Romano, Arsenal have already reached an agreement with Martin Zubimendi to become Berta’s first major signing of the next transfer window, following months of reported negotiations.

Arsenal's most expensive signings of all time

The Gunners have spent generously in recent years.

By
Charlie Smith

Sep 5, 2025

The Gunners are expected to trigger Zubimendi’s £51 million release clause and seal their replacement for exit-bound Jorginho nice and early, with Berta making a fire-start to his tenure as sporting director.

Race for Champions League qualification with 2 games remaining	Points
2. Arsenal	68
3. Newcastle United	66
4. Man City	65
5. Chelsea	63
6. Aston Villa	63
7. Nottingham Forest	62

The 26-year-old’s arrival in north London, as per Ben Jacobs, could even be confirmed by the end of this month, even if there is still an err of caution at the Emirates Stadium.

“Zubimendi, I’m told it is pretty much agreed in principle. I’d be surprised if May ends, and we don’t hear that Zubimendi is an Arsenal player,” said Jacobs.

“Internally at Arsenal, they basically think that one is done. The caution around letting that slip is because Liverpool thought it was done as well.

“Until it’s signed, Arsenal are super cautious, but in terms of contract length, terms, payment around the clause and triggering the clause, all of that Arsenal feel is there and ready to go. It’s a case of saying, ‘OK, let’s get this signed.’ I think we have a very high percentage chance of, in the next few weeks, Zubimendi being confirmed as an Arsenal player.”

After Zubimendi, it is believed Arsenal are looking at signing a second-choice keeper, full-back, right-winger, left-winger and new striker (GiveMeSport), with Mikel Arteta’s side also among the many contenders for Bournemouth defender Dean Huijsen’s signature.

Arsenal are said to have already made a formal offer to Huijsen, according to some reports from Spain (Cadena SER), as they look to get ahead of Real Madrid and tempt the 20-year-old with an alternative home in the Premier League.

Arsenal make contact over signing Real Madrid striker Rodrygo

According to Diario AS journalist Eduardo Burgos, £202,000-per-week Real Madrid forward Rodrygo is also in their thinking when it comes to attacking reinforcements.

Berta is widely tipped to sign a new striker when the window reopens, with Arsenal having some contact over signing Rodrygo and are among the sides most interested in his services.

The versatile Brazilian, who’s played on the right-wing, left-wing and as a striker under Carlo Ancelotti this season, has 13 goals and 10 assists to his name from 50 appearances in all competitions – so he’d likely cost a marquee fee if Real even entertain the notion of him leaving.

“He is a special striker, he can play in all positions,” said Ancelotti about the 24-year-old. “He is fast, smart and effective one on one. The learning is over. He is a Real Madrid player for all purposes.”

In recent years, West Ham have been looking to increase their level of recruitment, aiming to improve their squad year upon year which has become even more possible since the big-money sale of Declan Rice.

The England midfielder was sold to Arsenal for a fee of around £105m, allowing the Hammers to invest plenty in the past two years.

In West Ham’s top ten most expensive transfers, four of the ten have been signed since Rice left the club, £123.5m being spent in the 2023/24 campaign and spending a further £123.4m in the 2024/25 season.

West Ham’s top ten most expensive transfers
Player	Fee (£)
Sebastien Haller	£42.7m
Maximilian Kilman	£40.6m
Mohammed Kudus	£36.8m
Lucas Paqueta	£36.7m
Gianluca Scamacca	£33m
Edson Alvarez	£32.5m
Felipe Anderson	£32.5m
Kurt Zouma	£29.9m
Nayef Aguerd	£29.9m
James Ward-Prowse	£29.7m
Data taken from Transfermarkt

But away from this list of their top ten most expensive transfers, the Hammers have had some bargains over the years, including one of their best-ever players who ranks 29th in the club’s most expensive transfer fees.

Dimitri Payet's incredible spell at West Ham

West Ham made the signing of Dimitri Payet from Marseille in 2015, with the Frenchman joining the Hammers for a fee of around £10m, which would turn out to be an absolute bargain.

West Ham co-chairman, David Sullivan, labeled Payet a “world-class” player who would be worth triple what they paid had he been in his “prime”. It’s easy to see why.

For the Irons, Payet made 60 appearances for the club, scoring 15 goals and providing 22 assists in 4,981 minutes.

Capable of the magical and the extraordinary, his best moment was the extraordinary free-kick goal against Crystal Palace, a goal which finds itself on repeat to this day.

Unfortunately, Payet decided he wanted to return to France in 2017, heading back to Marseille for a fee of around £25m.

To this day, they arguably still lack that magic man, Jarrod Bowen aside, but they may well have the next Payet brewing at the London Stadium.

West Ham's "future icon" could be the next Payet

Bowen has been incredible since signing for West Ham from Hull, notably scoring the winner in the Conference League final, but he’s not the player in question here, it’s Mohammed Kudus.

Signed from Ajax in the 2023/24 summer transfer window, the 24-year-old forward joined for a fee of around £38m and has been a revelation since.

Indeed, Kudus has made 73 appearances for the club since arriving, scoring 17 goals and providing nine assists in his 5,718 minutes played. He may not have hit the dizzy heights of last term but he’s still a cracking player on his day.

Kudus (2023/24) vs Kudus (2024/25)
Stats (per 90 mins)	23/24	24/25
Goals	0.37	0.12
Assists	0.17	0.12
xG	0.23	0.26
xAG	0.14	0.10
Progressive Carries	3.99	3.51
Progressive Passes	2.96	2.77
Shots Total	2.52	2.54
Key Passes	1.14	1.13
Shot-Creating Actions	3.52	3.68
Successful Take-Ons	3.93	3.16
Stats taken from FBref

When comparing the underlying metrics between Kudus’s first season at the club and this season (his second season) you can see how similar the metrics are. Despite this year being much tougher for the Hammers and the Ghana international struggling for output, the underlying metrics still look very strong, ranking highly for things like successful take-ons and shot-creating actions.

Described as a “future icon” of Ghanaian football by scout Jacek Kulig, he could also become this at West Ham, following in the steps of another magician in Payet. However, Kudus is already subject to plenty of interest from other clubs, and therefore, his decision to stay or leave could prove vital.

If Kudus decides to stay, he could go down as a legend over time, depending on the uplift of performances under Graham Potter.

However, if he does choose to leave, the fee that would be obtained would be very substantial, and it would be tough for Hammers fans to feel too aggrieved.

Best signing since Bowen: West Ham struck gold on £90k-p/w "game-changer"

West Ham have struck gold on their “game-changer” who is easily their best signing since Bowen.

By
Connor Holden

Mar 31, 2025

A Test match that seemed certain to end up a draw now carries way more jeopardy thanks to the India captain

Alagappan Muthu30-Sep-20242:35

Manjrekar: ‘This is the legacy Rohit Sharma will leave as captain’

Test cricket has been around for so long that there are some things that simply can’t be known. Did Bradman sleep with his bat by his bedside? Did WG floss his teeth after brushing? Did Imran take a class on the psychology of cornered tigers? Did the Nawab of Pataudi have morning breath?The importance of a batter hitting the first two balls he faces for six sits somewhere in there, as a quirk. History, in as much as it could, suggests there have been four people to do so.Foffie Williams is known, even though it happened way back in 1948, because he was a fast bowler and it was very out of character. The rest of these marauders are of a more recent vintage and therefore data about them is much more readily available. Sachin Tendulkar took a liking to Nathan Lyon in 2013 and Umesh Yadav couldn’t resist George Linde in 2019. Each of these was an attack in the spur of the moment.On Monday, Rohit Sharma sashaying down the pitch to launch Khaled Ahmed straight down the ground and then swivelling on his back foot to pummel the next ball over square leg was deliberate.Related

• Rohit hopes 'exceptional' series against Bangladesh doesn't go 'unnoticed'

• Rohit Sharma's legacy: Rewiring his generation, encouraging the next

• BCCI vice-president defends Kanpur as Test venue but concedes need for improvements

• Stats – Rohit and Jaiswal give India speed-scoring records

• India's breakneck pace keeps result alive after two lost days

“I don’t think as a bowling unit they [Bangladesh] expected that to happen. But it was always part of our game plan was to see, okay, how can we push this game forward? And how can we get the result?” bowling coach Morne Morkel said.India need five wins to feel safe about their place in the World Test Championship final next year. They have five Tests at home. Wrapping them up before heading to Australia would be a huge load off their shoulders. But the weather in Kanpur and the drainage at Green Park have been less than accommodating of those ideas. If India had dreamed of going Down Under and playing the Border-Gavaskar series all freed-up, they needed to do something drastic.And they did. Even before they began batting. With Rohit once more the instigator.Litton Das was playing some glorious punches either side of the wicket all while taking zero risks. So India’s captain pulled two of his slips out and planted them right in front of the batter. One at short midwicket, the other at silly mid-off. Now Litton couldn’t get his runs playing those check drives where his hands never strayed too far from his body. Now he had to do something different. He had to open himself up to risks.The one he took was trying to clear mid-off. And Rohit was there. He leapt up in the air. Reached one hand up into the sky and came down with the ball and a smile that needed way more space than he had available, a shortcoming fixed quickly enough when his team-mates joined him. His smile spread to them and their smiles spread to the 20,000 or so people who were watching at the stadium. Shubman Gill re-enacted the catch in the celebrations. Rohit re-enacted it himself when he returned to mid-on for the new batter. It was a moment’s fun that he allowed himself before getting back down to business.Bangladesh could scarcely have imagined the carnage heading their way. Most of it came off the bat of Yashasvi Jaiswal, who looked certain to become India’s fastest Test centurion. At various times, he had six times as many boundary riders (6) as catching fielders (1). And still he kept beating them, choosing often enough to go clean over their heads, but the more impressive shots were the ones along the ground. He somehow kept finding the gap, the sweep going finer of deep square leg, the cover drive scuttling away to the sweeper’s left, long-on staring as the ball thudded into the stands behind him.Rohit Sharma came out all guns blazing•BCCIThere was a moment when Shakib Al Hasan, fed up with what’s happening, tried to get his captain’s attention to suggest a field change but Najmul Hossain Shanto must have had too much on his mind to notice. In the end, Shakib just gave up and was forced to wait until the end of the over to convey his message.With Bangladesh scrambling, Jaiswal helped himself to 72 runs off 51 balls. Virat Kohli produced an innings where his control percentage was down in the mid-60s but his strike rate was up in the high 130s thanks to a willingness to try shots as exotic as the standing reverse dab to deep third. KL Rahul forgot to look like he’s going through an existential crisis every time he plays this format and scored a 33-ball fifty. India took the lead within three hours.”It was a collective buy-in from the batting group and that is important,” Morkel said. “From GG’s point of view as well, we decided let’s see if we can take the game forward as fast as possible and you need a leader from the front to do that. And Rohit has done it so many times for India and again today to go first ball, bang six, you know, on a surface where you think, is the bounce might be up and down, you’re not quite sure how the new ball is going to play, just to make his mark in that fashion…”India got to 50 in 18 balls, 100 in 61 balls, 200 in 148 balls and 250 in 183 balls. Each of them was a Test match record and a plan coming together. The vastness of our game (so much of it being unknown) and the weirdness of this one (so much of it lost to the wayside) collided when Rohit took strike.

His comeback may have come too late for a realistic chance of selection, but his 3 for 27 showed why he remains a compelling option

Sidharth Monga18-Aug-20222:32

Chahar: ‘I’m continuing from where I left off before the injury’

India’s head coach Rahul Dravid was the India A coach before he took up the job. During his stint, he coached most of the players who play for India now. One of the players he was highly impressed with was Deepak Chahar. It wasn’t just the skills. Chahar has had to deal with more than a few injuries, but he has always bounced back. Dravid says that whenever Chahar played for India A, it was an education for the other fast bowlers in the group, in how professional, deliberate and particular he was with how he looked after his body.Chahar’s ability to come back from injury has been tested at a particularly delicate time in his career. He was building up solid momentum towards his first World Cup appearance when he tore his quadriceps during a T20I in February this year. It turned out be his last competitive game of cricket before his match-winning return against Zimbabwe on Thursday.Related

• High stakes for KL Rahul and Deepak Chahar in Zimbabwe

• Chahar, Dhawan, Gill lead India's rout of Zimbabwe

At the time of his injury, Chahar was a frontrunner for the new-ball role in India’s T20 side. He also brought value with the bat down the order. He had worked on his death-bowling skills too, and had proved it when playing for Chennai Super Kings. While rehabbing following the quadriceps tear, Chahar did his back in, which kept him out of the IPL and the tours of England and the West Indies.Had Chahar been ready for the five T20Is against the West Indies, he could have presented a case for a World Cup spot, but now that he is not part of the Asia Cup squad, it is perhaps believed that his body has recovered a touch too late.It pays to be professional and philosophical about these things and do the best you can when you get whatever games you get. Chahar was not happy with the landing area when he began his new-ball spell, but his attention to detail was apparent. He was not taking any chances on his comeback. By over two, he felt comfortable and was on the money with a new ball that surprisingly swung for all seven overs of his first spell.In these moments, it’s not about selection for World Cups but enjoying the rare day when the conditions are helping you.Tadiwanashe Marumani sways away from a Deepak Chahar bouncer•AFP via Getty Images”That [World Cup selection] is not in my hand,” Chahar said when asked if he felt he was back to where he was six-and-a-half months ago vis-à-vis the World Cup spot. “Skill-wise, though, I have worked really hard. There I can say I have probably started where I had left off. After the first over [when I had the run-up issue], rest whatever I bowled, I was happy. It was a seven-over spell, so the fitness is good.”However, Chahar did feel the pressure of having to reclaim his place in the side after the long break. “You have to make your space again in the team,” Chahar said. “Because when you are away for a long time, others come in and perform well and make their place in the side. To make your place in the side again, you have to give good performances. So that pressure is always there on a returning player. I had the same expectation that I will do well when I come back because that is all a player has in his hand.”Other than that, Chahal will be the first one to say his outing in Harare – late swing each way, full attacking lengths, early wickets – didn’t tell viewers anything they didn’t know about Chahar. “My plan is always simple,” Chahar said. “When the ball is swinging, try to bowl fuller length and take as many wickets as possible. When the ball is not swinging, then there is a Plan B or Plan C. Today when I bowled, it swung for six-seven overs, so I had a simple plan: bowl full, mix the swing and confuse the batsmen.”The question really is not about Chahar’s skill or his utility when it comes to World Cup selection. It’s about his fitness – which he was happy with having bowled 10 overs in the practice matches he played before returning, and then this seven-over spell – and the timing of his return. Do the selectors think it is too late to disrupt a combination that they might have settled on before Chahar’s return?As Chahar said, that is not in his hands. So let’s just enjoy the early swing and look forward to Plans B and C for the rest of this series.

The Capitals vs Royals was a truly thrilling exhibition of ferociously fast bowling

Alagappan Muthu15-Oct-20202:15

Bishop: Nortje has brought skill and control along with pace

Jofra Archer is feeling it. He doesn’t have the ball in hand yet. He’s not even on the field. But he has the smile of a teenager who had just discovered how to turn off parental controls on the TV. he’s dancing.Being a fast bowler is fun.Archer has pace that pokes holes into the laws of physics. A run up that’s sometimes only a dawdle shouldn’t produce speeds that petrify the batsman, but everywhere he goes and whomever he faces, he continues to do just that.At some point, maybe in the three days off he probably gets every season, he should let the world’s scientists take him apart so we can all finally and fully understand his extraordinary physical abilities.Prithvi Shaw certainly had no warning of the carnage on the way. He took strike as he normally does. He went after a length ball as he normally does. And he got bowled neck and crop because of a hair-raising abnormality that cricket always makes room for.Pace. 144 kph.Archer was unplayable from the very first ball he bowled in Rajasthan Royals’ game against Delhi Capitals in Dubai. He made Ajinkya Rahane shrivel away from a bouncer. That was 147 kph. He took him out too and the new guy had to face 151 kph.This was fast bowling in its purest form. Archer was operating at a level so far above the opposition. No one could touch him. They didn’t even dare, really. That is the majesty of pace. And this game was all about it.ESPNcricinfo LtdAnrich Nortje looks every bit the speedster. Big biceps. Broad shoulders. Long run up. But Jos Buttler doesn’t seem fussed. He calmly gets into his stance, crouches a bit as the ball is about to be delivered, plants his front leg down the pitch because it’s full and swings it for six. That was 148 kph and hitting it out of the park was a statement.This game was being played on a used pitch. Slower balls were bound to stick in it. A very useful advantage against a batsman like Buttler, who likes it coming onto the bat. There was logic in a change of course. But that involves a fast bowler admitting a little bit of defeat; that he can’t overpower his enemy. Nortje wasn’t ready for that.So he cranked it up to 156 kph. That, btw, is only five clicks slower than the world record.Buttler met it with one of his scoops. It doesn’t even matter that it went for four. The simple fact that he thought he could play that ball with less than a full bat was bonkers. Some players really do live to face heavy metal bowling like this. It is a morbid thrill; the thought that they can take em down.Nortje knew he had a problem. “First ball, I didn’t expect him to go. I didn’t expect the scoop either.” But he didn’t waver. He ran in again, gathering speed. This one was 155 kph and like the guitar solo from it had a bone-chilling effect.It cuh-lean bowled Buttler.”Maybe he was expecting something else,” Nortje said at the presentation. “Maybe a short ball or the slower slower but I just thought I’d stick to my strengths and at the end it paid off.”

KG, Archer, Ana
I’d have paid to watch them live tonight.
Fast bowling is strong, and this competition is being dominated by these beasts!

— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) October 14, 2020

All of this leaves Kagiso Rabada in a of a situation. IPL 2020’s highest wicket-taker is, officially, the slower of the Capitals’ two speed demons.”It looks like it [Nortje hits 156 kph] every game. I’m really happy for him. I’m not that happy for the batter,” he told . “Maybe now when we have a drink when we get back to the hotel, he’ll sneak a cheeky one past. But when we’re playing, we’re just thinking about the delivery. Not the speed gun.”Still, if you can summon the kind of pace that Archer, Rabada and Nortje do, you don’t take a backwards step. You just stand at the top of your mark. Run in as hard as you can. Savour the wind in your hair. Make a note of the silly things you make the batsman do for when you tell the story later. Get into your delivery stride. And. Just. Go. Whang.Fast bowlers like that attain nirvana on a cricket field. And the whole world gets high watching them.

His captaincy is not as celebrated as those of some of his contemporaries, but he has the results, and has made telling contributions towards achieving them

Osman Samiuddin16-Jan-2025Have we ever considered the possibility that Jasprit Bumrah was put on this planet to make Pat Cummins look human? No? Because I think we should.I mean, Cummins has just become the first Australian captain in a decade to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He took 25 wickets in a sweaty, combative brawl, the highest for his side. He averaged over three times as much as a batter as Rohit Sharma, more than Shubman Gill, and nearly as much as Virat Kohli. He bowled two contenders for ball of the series, one to dismiss Rohit, one to KL Rahul. At every moment he looked like Jon Hamm should have been his understudy as Don Draper, and still Bumrah won the Player of the Series award and nobody’s quibbling, and this sounds like I’m telling you how good Bumrah was without telling you how good Bumrah was. But if anyone could quibble, without being laughed off stage, it would be Cummins. And if there’s one person who definitely, 100%, is too polite to actually quibble, that too is Cummins.Because other than in the opening Test, in Perth, Cummins was pretty much all over this triumph, in that endearingly low-key and gentlemanly way that in no way should be mistaken for an absence of main-character energy. It was his short-ball barrage that poleaxed India in the second innings in Adelaide. It was his pair of 40s at the MCG that pulled the game away from India. It was his double-wicket over on the final morning there, after an hour of solid India resistance, that gave Australia the opening, and his wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal later that all but sealed it. It was his wicket of Rishabh Pant at the SCG, and then two more from the lower order the next morning that ensured Australia wouldn’t have a big chase.Related

• Cummins: An Aussie World Cup winning captain like no other

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He bossed the big duels, dismissing Rohit and Pant four times, and Rahul thrice. Not dismissing Virat Kohli even once seemed either like a rare oversight or an act of munificence so that the rest of his attack had some big moments. Cummins was impactful, 14 of his 25 wickets coming in the first or second over of a spell, which was validation twice over – of his status as a bowler and also as a captain who knew exactly when to bring on his best bowler.As much as he bowled beautiful, catching those edges, hitting the top of off, he bowled ugly well too, the mid-innings grunt work (it’s difficult to reconcile that he’s not always opening the bowling), drying up those runs, cranking up that pressure. As the ball got older, he went to his bouncers, taking nine wickets with them (more than anyone else) and ensuring that Australia’s threat rarely waned as the innings progressed. Bouncers aren’t often remembered as a ball of a match or series, but the one to Pant in Adelaide beautiful in its execution and suddenness. And he was durable, bowling six-over second spells in the third or fourth innings of a Test at the end of a series, with the same intensity as he did the first spell of a series.There’s a side point to be made about aesthetics, which is necessarily subjective and needs to be prefaced with: Cummins is not boring to watch. But. He’s not as fun or thrilling to watch as Bumrah, or not fun and thrilling in the same way. It’s not perfectly analogous but it doesn’t feel entirely wrong to say that if Bumrah is the Wasim of this age, Cummins is its McGrath.

As much as he bowled beautiful against India, catching those edges, hitting the top of off, he bowled ugly well too, the mid-innings grunt work, drying up those runs, cranking up that pressure

Anyway, this much we’re familiar with. What’s more interesting at the moment is where we are three years into the Cummins Captaincy. At one level, if you placed his captaincy against that of some of his counterparts and contemporaries, it isn’t feted (or fetishised) nearly as much, or in the same ways. Nothing like the halo around Ben Stokes, for example. Or Rohit Sharma, whose defining legacy, until India’s recent red-ball travails, was set to be his cultural transformation of India’s white-ball cricket. And Kohli before him, who set greater store in winning every game India played than perhaps any India captain before him. Cummins’ opponent in the WTC final, meanwhile, will be South Africa’s first full-time black African Test captain. We don’t need reminding of how potentially transformative a tenure that could be.Amidst these, Cummins’ captaincy comes across a little normcore. No obvious philosophy or schtick. No radical shift in style. No memorable tactical gambits (although his captaincy in the World Cup final was outstanding), other than to bring on his best bowler at the right time. An immeasurable impact of his leadership is how the Australian team has become less boorish. I’m not saying this is a side of cuddly teddy bears sitting on little fluffy clouds, but there’s lesser variance now between how they play on the field and how they appear off it. Somewhat in the image of their leader.That he is leading an imperfect side, or a vulnerable one – or at least one that doesn’t feel nearly as invincible as the great modern Australian sides – makes it oddly humanising. They’ve lost a Test at home to West Indies. They didn’t win their last series in India (though only one Australia side has in over 50 years). But they didn’t win their last series in Sri Lanka either. And their World Cup campaign began so poorly that had they lost to Afghanistan at the Wankhede, who knows how it might have ended. And, of course, there’s the 2023 Ashes. Had Manchester weather behaved itself, Cummins might be sitting here only the second captain ever to have lost a five-Test series from 2-0 up. Such a result alone would have put a different gloss on his captaincy. As it is, he and Australia both looked a little frazzled by Bazball by series’ end.