Cummins concerns and weaknesses to target - takeaways from SA-Australia

Pat Cummins has been Australia captain since 2021 If England fans were in any doubt over the difficulty of this winter's trip to South Africa, they should be no more. The superb Proteas completed victory on the final day of their enthralling series against Australia to reaffirm their status as the best side in the world. The contest was packed with subplots, many of which are relevant to England for their upcoming tour and next summer's Ashes series beyond. Australia captain Pat Cummins maintained they are still a "really good side" after the defeat. It is undeniable they stand at an intriguing point in their development, however. Knocked off the top of the Test rankings for the first time in two and a half years, they have an ageing bowling attack and a batting line-up caught between generations. And for the first time in his career there is attention on Cummins himself. One third of Australia's iconic pace trio, with Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, he went more than 62 overs without a wicket between the second innings of the first Test and South Africa's second dig in the third. Only once has he finished a series with a worse bowling average than the 53.66 he returned in South Africa. His expected wickets return of 29.6 suggests he bowled better than those figures suggest, but he has only returned a higher mark on that metric once in his past 20 series. Of course, Cummins has plenty of credit in the bank but questions are bound to be raised given his age. Were the 33-year-old not captain, it may have been him under pressure from Scott Boland to play in the third Test. His call to bowl first in Cape Town also proved poor and he was helpless tactically when South Africa's openers attacked on the first morning before correcting things after lunch. Since Joe Root returned as Test skipper, England have not picked a frontline spinner and have instead favoured a four-man pace attack of Jofra Archer, Ollie Robinson, Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson. South Africa's victory in the third Test suggests they will need an alternative before long. Off-spinner Simon Harmer, who once considered playing for England before opting for the country of his birth, took 10-120 to bowl the Proteas to victory in Cape Town - the venue of the third Test against England. Newlands is not typically a spinner's surface but it turned big from the third day.