"I liken Pat Cummins to great Dennis Lilee": Ian Chappell

NEW DELHI: Former Australian batter Ian Chappell, lauded skipper Pat Cummins, saying that his delivery to dismiss Pakistan star batter Babar Azam reminded him of former pacer Dennis Lillee's greatness and spoke about similarities between the two bowlers.

A ten-wicket haul during the Boxing Day Test against Pakistan at Melbourne concluded Cummins' dream run in 2023, in which he won the ICC World Test Championship and ICC Cricket World Cup as captain and also retained the Ashes series in England as a skipper. He also completed 250 wickets in Test cricket for Australia.

"As Australia captain Pat Cummins cleverly dissected the Pakistan batting line-up to bring his team a tough victory in the second Test, I thought: what does it take to amass Test victims - lots of them?," said Ian in his column for ESPNCricinfo.

Chappell further said, "I liken Cummins to the great former Australia fast bowler Dennis Lillee in both inspirational qualities and heart size. Lillee wanted to get batters out, to have their number. He says, "Fast bowling is a mental job as well as a physical one." said Chappell.

"At the top of his mark, Lillee envisioned the ball flying through to keeper Rod Marsh, who would take the delivery at head height standing back. That is what Lillee means when he talks about the mental side of fast bowling."

"The spectacular delivery that Cummins produced to bowl Pakistan's Babar Azam - dismissing the opposition's best batter once again - reminded me of Lillee's greatness," he concluded.

Chappell recalled how during a Test match in 1972 at The Oval against England, the English wicketkeeper-batter Alan Knott was dismissed for 63 by Lillie while he was putting up a great fight against the Aussie attack. The batter recalled how Lillie's delivery was nowhere near his fastest, but he beat Knott through his "sheer willpower".

"At that stage, England led by 241. Lillee then bowled the obstinate Knott for a well-compiled 63, leaving Australia to chase 242 for a famous victory. He did not bowl Knott with pure pace - the delivery was nowhere near his fastest. Nor did he beat the bat with movement - the pitch by then was devoid of any green tinge. Lillee bowled Knott with sheer willpower. He wanted the batter out. Like Lillee, Cummins wanted Babar out," said Chappell.

Chappell said that with improvement in modern bats, it is not about how a player bowls, but how they perform when a good batter is attacking.

"That is when the best bowlers come to the fore. It is also when you need every bit of the mental fortitude that Lillee speaks about and Cummins exudes," continued Chappell.

"Occasionally I hear: "Adhere to the process and don't worry too much about the actual consequences."

"Well, in Pakistan's case they beat the edge of the bat regularly at the MCG but also seemingly with resignation. And catches kept going down - chances that should have been taken and could have been crucial to the end result, because Pakistan had Australia four down and were back in contention," concluded Chappell.

Ian said that Lillee's great trait was that the batter had to overcome both his skillset and "iron will."

"One of Lillee's great traits was that a batter had to overcome his enormous skill first, which was no easy feat. However, if he achieved that difficult task, he still had to outlast his iron will, which took a monumental effort," said Chappell.

"On those hot, demanding days, give me a Lillee- or a Cummins-style character who cares only about not giving in and taking wickets rather than how the process feels."

That is why great fast bowlers like Lillee and Cummins are a captain's dream and a batter's nightmare," concluded Chappell.

Cummins ended this year with 59 wickets in 24 matches, with the best bowling figures of 6/91. 42 of these wickets came in Tests, while 17 came in ODIs.

Cummins also delivered some valuable performances with the bat during the Ashes and World Cup, scoring 422 runs in 28 innings this year at an average of 21.10. His 44* against England in an instant classic first Ashes Test and 12* in a double century stand with Glenn Maxwell against Afghanistan in the Cricket World Cup come to mind in an instant.