Pat Cummins bore the brunt of the criticism directed towards his team after a miserable second day for Australia at Emirates Old Trafford in the 2023 Ashes.

Australia endured a nightmare day two that started badly and only got worse. From the moment Cummins was caught by his opposite number Ben Stokes off the first ball of the day – a minute before the scheduled start of play – Australia were handsomely bettered by a rampant England.

Despite the dismissal of Ben Duckett early in the England innings, the hosts finished day two 67 runs ahead of Australia with six first-innings wickets in hand. Zak Crawley was the chief architect of the destruction, scoring a scintillating 182-ball 189.

The afternoon session was particularly galling for Australia. England racked up 178 runs from 25 overs for the loss of just one wicket with several of Cummins’ decisions coming under the spotlight. Chiefly, the pre-game call to omit Todd Murphy in favour of an extra all-rounder came into focus after the part-time spin of Travis Head was brought on for the 23rd over and Mitchell Marsh, Australia’s fifth seamer but who dismissed Crawley twice at Headingley, wasn’t introduced until the England opener was already on 112.

There were times when Australia looked to slow down proceedings in a way that was counter-intuitive. Head took five minutes to bowl the final over before tea after several lengthy deliberations over field placements where in that position, the bowling team always has more to gain and less to lose by an additional over than the batting side.

On Sky Sports Cricket‘s coverage, former England captain Nasser Hussain remarked that it was, at times, unclear who was leading Australia. “Often when you look down on an Australian side historically, you know who the captain is, whether it be Border, Taylor, Ponting, Waugh. You look down today and there have been a lot of cricketers waving their arms around trying to help their captain Cummins.”

Sections of the Australian press were more forthright in their criticism. Andrew Wu, a reporter for The Age, tweeted: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Pat Cummins this rattled. He’s dropped catches, his bowling has been plundered, and he’s moving fielders after the fact only for the next shot to go to a recently vacated position. The last day at Edgbaston feels a long time ago now.”

Elsewhere, Daniel Brettig in the Sydney Morning Herald, was also critical of Australia’s tactics, saying that their day was “riddled with mistakes, questionable tactics and ultimately carrying an air of resignation.”

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