Pat Cummins shaped up as the frontrunner Saturday to take over from disgraced former Australia Test skipper Tim Paine, with the likes of Mark Taylor, Dennis Lillie, and Steve Waugh all singing his praises. The 28-year-old, who has served as vice-captain in both Test and white-ball formats since 2019, is widely seen as being in a two-way race with Steve Smith to assume the reins after Paine`s shock departure over a sexting scandal. He stepped down after a series of sexually graphic text message exchanges with a Cricket Tasmania employee in 2017 came to light, despite being cleared by cricket authorities of any offence at the time.

Smith, who was stripped of the captain`s armband and banned for a year after a ball-tampering scandal in South Africa in 2018 which culminated with Paine taking over, has support to complete a remarkable career revival. But Cummins appears to be the heir apparent, with Smith tipped to be his deputy for the upcoming home Ashes series against arch-rivals England.