Durability the only barrier to fast bowling captains: Bird

Jackson Bird has no designs on making the Tasmanian captaincy his permanent occupation, but the veteran quick believes the only barrier to a fast bowler like Pat Cummins becoming Test skipper is their durability.

As the only specialist paceman to captain a Marsh Sheffield Shield side over the past five seasons and one of only two in the past decade, Bird is uniquely placed to offer advice to Cummins, who has emerged as a potential successor to Tim Paine for the biggest job in Australian cricket.

Bird himself filled in for Paine in Tasmania's drawn Shield clash with Victoria at the MCG this week after the Test captain woke up ill on the morning of the game's opening day, but admitted he does not covet the full-time job.

With Cummins dipping his toes in the captaincy waters for NSW in this season's Marsh One-Day Cup, Bird believes the 27-year-old would be capable of taking on the role at Test level when Paine eventually finishes up.

But although Cummins has only missed two Tests since his return to the side in 2017 following a lengthy battle with injury, Bird fears the gruelling nature of international cricket for fast bowlers makes appointing one as skipper a risky proposition.

"There's no reason why they can't do it," Bird, who is one wicket away from becoming the first Tasmanian to 300 Sheffield Shield wickets, told cricket.com.au.

"The only thing that would be difficult is that fast bowlers are obviously prone to get injured. If Pat unfortunately did get injured and was out for a lengthy period of time, that would be a bit difficult for the team to find another captain.

"That would be the only hurdle I suppose.

"But Pat's got a great cricket brain so I couldn't see why he couldn't do it.

"I'd be pretty surprised if he was (made captain) but that's not saying he wouldn't do a good job if he was."

While a handful of seam-bowling allrounders like James Hopes and Mitch Marsh have had had success as state skippers in recent seasons, frontline fast bowler captains remain a remarkably rare species in first-class cricket in Australia.

No specialist pace bowler had done it since Bird last filled in for Tasmania during the 2016-17 season, while his now-Tigers teammate Peter Siddle took the reins twice for his former side Victoria the preceding summer.

Prior to those two, the last man to do it was Stuart Clark, who took over from Simon Katich for six games while he was on Test duties during his final Shield season with NSW in 2010-11.

Australia's men's Test side has not been led by a frontline paceman since Ray Lindwall filled in for a solitary match 65 years ago, though the women's team has been captained by Sharon Tredrea and Raelee Thompson.

There has never been a specialist quick to captain Australia's men's ODI or T20I teams.

The physically taxing nature of fast bowling is often a negating factor for would-be skippers, with seamers typically stationed at fine-leg between overs to enjoy a drink and a break.

As a sharp close-in catcher, Bird had the advantage of standing at first slip while Tasmania's other quicks bowled during their low-scoring Shield match against Victoria.

The nine-Test right-armer does not see fielding in the cordon as a pre-requisite for captaining, but he said the regular input of other senior players, especially on when to bowl himself, is important.

"I was bouncing a few ideas off guys who had done a fair bit of captaincy before in terms of when to bring myself back on (to bowl)," Bird explained.

"I know how many overs I want to bowl in a spell and how many overs I should bowl, and I can tell that by how I'm feeling throughout that spell.

"The main thing is asking those guys when I should come back on.

"It doesn't matter where you field.

"Pat wouldn't be able to go down to fine leg and have a drink – that's probably the most difficult thing I found; fielding in the slips, bowling my overs and not getting a proper drink down there (at fine leg) and being able to rest.

"(But) I don't think it would be too much of a hassle for him. He'd have guys like David Warner at mid-off – he'd have plenty of help out there. I don't think that would be too much of a hurdle."