Six and out: McGrath backs Cummins to replicate '97 epic

The last fast bowler to play all six Tests on a tour of England has backed Pat Cummins to follow suit.

Glenn McGrath remains the most recent visiting paceman to play half-a-dozen Tests on a trip the UK, achieving the feat in a marathon effort during the 1997 Ashes.

That looked certain to be an enduring legacy for McGrath given every Test series contested between Australia and England since has consisted of only five Tests.

But a fixturing quirk, which saw this year's World Test Championship (WTC) final conclude just five days before the beginning of the Ashes, has set Cummins up with the gruelling task of playing six Tests in seven-and-a-half weeks.

Image Id: 67043F689E284BB39BB39436BF6662B6 Image Caption: Pat Cummins stretches while chatting with coach Andrew Mcdonald at Lord’s // Getty

Cummins declared before the WTC decider that he intended to do exactly that. Two-thirds of the way to fulfilling that pledge, he remains bullish.

"I feel great, actually, probably better than I would have hoped. I don't have any niggles or injuries," he told reporters after the tour’s first defeat at Headingley last week. "So fingers crossed, should be sweet."

Cummins played six Tests on the trot during the 2018-19 home summer against India and Sri Lanka, but has never faced such a physically and mentally demanding task since being appointed skipper.

However McGrath is adamant the 30-year-old is capable.

"If he's fine, feeling good, enjoying it, switched on and still mentally focused, I don't like having a rest for the sake of having a rest," the 124-Test legend told cricket.com.au.

"I know it's a different mindset these days – it’s not about the XI, it's about the squad, and the nature of the beast is we (fast bowlers) put a lot of stress on our bodies.

"But I do believe in survival of the fittest.

"The best will come to the top and the ones with the best work ethic will always win out. You look at Broady and Jimmy (England veterans Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson) – they've played 165 and 181 Test matches (each) – that's incredible.

"If you're not physically or mentally exhausted, I can't see why Pat Cummins would have a rest, especially when things are on the line every single game now with the World Test Championship."

McGrath acknowledges Ashes tours are now undertaken in vastly different circumstances to the three he took part in during his own career.

Yet the durability exhibited by the wiry former quick during his maiden UK tour in 1997, a microcosm of the stamina and resilience he displayed through 13 years in international cricket, leaves McGrath as well placed as anyone to offer counsel.

While the Tests on the '97 trip were spread out over a 79-day period, compared to 54 days for the current tour, the actual touring schedule was arguably even more exhausting.

Image Id: A3ACDAD69E404D2FAB348584F0A83085 Image Caption: Glenn McGrath sent down an incredible 427.4 overs on the 1997 Ashes tour // Getty

In addition to the six Tests against England, Australia's 1997 campaign also had three ODIs and 17 tour games part of its schedule. Despite his heavy workload in the Tests, McGrath played in all three one-dayers and 10 of the supplementary matches against county sides, Ireland and Scotland, and invitational XIs picked by the Duke of Norfolk and John Paul Getty.

A query over whether he might have taken it easy in some of those games or ventured to bowl at less than 100 per cent intensity was swiftly shot down: "I just ran in bowled and gave it everything that I could.

"I didn't look at it as a big workload," said McGrath.

"I had a fairly stress-free action. I worked pretty hard off the field. That's the way it was, there was no consideration of anything else. I wanted to play every single game that I could."

Of the 427.4 overs McGrath sent down during that 1997 tour, a staggering 177.5 of them came in tour matches. That's almost 40 more overs than Cummins, Australia’s leading wicket taker in the Ashes series, has delivered in the first four Tests.

With no tour games fixtured for Australia's ongoing campaign, Cummins has the luxury of focusing all his attention on the Test matches. If he continues at his current rate of around 35 overs per Test, he should only just go past the 200-over mark for the tour.

Image Id: 0C826A1E5FE74303B6703902A0A92BAC Image Caption: McGrath bowls against the Duke of Norfolk XI at Arundel, Sussex in May 1997 // Getty

What will also play in his favour, Australia believe, are England's aggressive batting tactics. So far in the Ashes, Australia have bowled 134 fewer overs than the hosts, despite all three matches being close-run affairs in which neither team has been in the ascendancy for long.

Asked if that was playing into the hands of the visiting pace attack, Mitchell Starc said: "Yeah, probably.

"When games are happening quicker there's potentially more rest time, a bit more time to think about it while watching our guys bat. It's the nature of this series at the minute where … they want to go about it quickly and move the game along.

"Naturally that's going to mean shorter bowling efforts in terms of the number of overs."

There are similarities in how the early stages of McGrath's 1997 tour and Cummins' 2023 tour each panned out.

Both were short of their best to begin with. In '97, McGrath returned figures of 2-149 in the series opener at Edgbaston as his side slumped to an unexpected defeat.

While Australia won their first match in ‘23, beating India by a handsome margin at The Oval, Cummins was also shaking off rust in his first outing as he bowled 10 no-balls for the match, while his four wickets came as he conceded more than four runs per over against non-Bazball opposition.

Both then responded with iconic performances on their tour’s respective second matches.

For McGrath, it was career-best figures of 8-38 that commenced his love affair with the Lord's slope, while for Cummins, it was following one of the best deliveries of his career, a searing in-swinger that bowled Ollie Pope, with a clutch 55-run partnership with Nathan Lyon for the penultimate wicket that was capped by him hitting the winning runs.

Controversy then followed in the third. In '97 it was a disputed catch by Nasser Hussain off Greg Blewett at Old Trafford. In '23 it was the Jonny Bairstow stumping, though the firestorm that followed the latter incident hardly compared to the short-lived ill-feeling over Hussain's slips grab.

What also sets a contrast was how McGrath and Cummins were left to respond to their initial struggles.

At the instruction of coach Geoff Marsh, McGrath, despite having sent down 39 overs in England's nine-wicket defeat in Birmingham, was made to complete the ultimate 'naughty-boy nets' session on what should have been the fifth day of the Test, bowling for more than two overs off his full run-up as Marsh implored Australia's bowlers to hit a more consistent length.

Two days later, the towering right-armer was then back on his feet again playing at Trent Bridge in a three-day match against Nottinghamshire. That was followed by another contest against Leicestershire, with the then 27-year-old bowling more than 30 overs in the two games that had no rest day between them.

Cummins on the other hand hardly bowled in the short break between lifting the WTC mace at The Oval and the opening Ashes encounter at Edgbaston, knowing the intensity of the contests that awaited.

It is little wonder McGrath saw fast bowling as a survival of the fittest during his era.

On that ’97 tour, he was essentially the last fast bowler standing as Jason Gillespie (back and hamstring), Brendan Julian (hand), Andy Bichel (back) and Paul Reiffel (birth of his first child) were all forced to miss Tests or leave early.

With the only casualty for Australia’s current group so far being Lyon after his series-ending calf injury, McGrath believes Cummins can last the journey despite having extra challenges he was never forced to reckon with.

"He must have a good work ethic," said McGrath. "I think his action puts a bit more stress on his body than mine did, he bowls a fair bit quicker than I did as well. All these little things add up.

"Being the captain as well, there's that extra responsibility to play every game.

"For fast bowlers, I know they're trying to minimise injuries (but) I'm a fan of survival of the fittest. I wouldn't have got an opportunity if other bowlers hadn't got injured.

"I'm a fan of, give it everything, maintain yourself, and if you get injured someone else gets an opportunity.

"That keeps you on edge every game performing at your best.

"With Pat Cummins, he's got in a good rhythm, a good routine, he's just got to maintain it."

2023 Qantas Ashes Tour of the UK

First Test: Australia won by two wickets

Second Test: Australia won by 43 runs

Third Test: England won by three wickets

Fourth Test: Wednesday July 19-Sunday July 23, Old Trafford

Fifth Test: Thursday July 27-Monday 31, The Oval

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood