'We've got to get better': Cummins looks for improvements | cricket.com.au

Australia captain Pat Cummins says hard questions must be asked before the Test squad regroups for a home series against New Zealand

'We've got to get better': Cummins looks for improvements

For a third time in Australia's past five Tests, Pat Cummins has lamented his top-order's decision-making – but he stopped short of defending his decision at the toss in Cape Town which amplified South Africa's final-day spin threat.

While he laughed off the wave of criticism led most stridently by his former teammate David Warner, Cummins did not deny changes could be on the cards when they take on the World Test Championship's new front-runners, New Zealand, in December.

Australia's captain conceded his side may have "overplayed" the irresistible Simon Harmer after the spinner compounded their new-ball wobble by ensuring all but one their top seven was dismissed inside the first 90 minutes of day five.

"A few really poor decisions. I know it's a day-five wicket, but I don't think it was drastic," Cummins told reporters after his team fell 176 runs short of their fourth-innings target of 288. "There was runs to be scored out there. There was lots of balls to face – a few decisions that the boys would like back.

"(Our) start in the first couple overs where you're behind it – maybe you're chasing a little bit harder than maybe when you turn up and think 'this is how you think the day is going to go'.

"So we've got to get better. It's happened a few times … we thought that chase was very achievable."

Cummins was wistful the team's senior core had punted what was likely their final shot at beating the current world No.1 team on their home turf. "I think we're a better side than what we have been playing lately," he said. "There's clear improvements to be made."

After their shock defeat to Bangladesh in Darwin two months ago, Australia have squandered strong positions in both Gqeberha and Cape Town on their South Africa tour. It has meant they have now failed to win the first two series of their taxing run of Tests through 2026-27.

Batting frailty has been a running theme through all three losses. Last week they were bowled out for just 99 to let the Proteas back into a series the home side have gone on to win 2-1, while in Darwin they were rolled for 198 and 284 in good batting conditions.

But where Cummins stood by his decision to bat first at Marrara Stadium – rightly anticipating favourable seam-bowling conditions would quickly subside – he was less strident in reviewing the call to insert South Africa based off a hunch it could be similarly difficult for batting early doors.

Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma labelled the chance to bat first and bowl last as an advantage. After the flying start they made on the opening morning, the game's late turning conditions helped Harmer take the final six wickets of the match.

"I think you're always weighing up different things on this pitch," said Cummins, who denied that Steve Smith's late scratching with a neck issue was a factor in his decision to bowl.

"We probably thought it was going to do a little bit more on day one than it did. But you don't win the toss and think you're going to bowl the opposition out for 100 or 200.

"We knew it was going to be high scoring, but we thought we could get 10 wickets on day one. That'd put us right ahead of the game … You'd love to replay things and see how they would have worked out in the counterfactual (scenario), but you just don't get a chance."

Australia had won 17 of 21 Tests between the end of the 2023 Ashes and late-2025, their success typically predicated on their champion bowlers and the aggressive approach of one of their batters usually coming off when conditions were against them.

On truer surfaces, Cummins has demanded his batters show more patience and resilience. He believes that's been lacking in all three of those defeats.

"I think one of the beauties of Test cricket is you can go from a pitch where 40 or 50 runs might be really (valuable), and that could be match-winning, but then the next week you need to bat bulk balls, and it's attritional," he said.

"I don't think we've been able to manage those different tempos well enough. It's something we talk about. I think this series, a lot of the runs that were scored were on the back of those kind of old Test cricket values that if you face a lot of balls, it gets a little bit easier.

"It's not always the case, so I don't think there's one set rule. But certainly here, even in Darwin, I think there's moments where you will get rewarded. The game will come to you if you dig in."

As Warner described the day-five collapse as "disgraceful" it bears repeating the silver linings of their first visit to South Africa for a Test series in eight years.

Matthew Renshaw has had a breakthrough campaign, Josh Inglis cemented a middle-order spot with his first-innings ton at Newlands, while Cameron Green showed he has turned a corner as a fully-fledged member of Australia's top-order. Cooper Connolly also made a promising return with the bat in the third Test.

But there were five top-seven batters who finished with averages under 22 for the series. Marnus Labuschagne (131 runs at 21.83) faces an uncertain future, as does Beau Webster after being replaced by Connolly in Cape Town.

The Nic Maddinson experiment – the left-hander making 56 runs at 14 after a 19-month first-class absence – did not pay off. Steve Smith (83 runs at 20.75) meanwhile had statistically one of the worst series of his career.

Cummins said the calls for change "are always the case after losing a series – and it's probably fair. If we lost two games in a row, I think it's fair to be asking those questions. We'll be asking them internally as well.

"We are a very good side, but I think we need to get a little bit better if we want to get back to number one and where we think we can be. Maybe that's a change of style, maybe it's change of personnel in some instances.

"Give us a couple of weeks (and) we'll work it out."

Qantas tour of South Africa 2026

First Test: Australia won by 214 runs

Second Test: South Africa won by an innings and 31 runs

Third Test: South Africa won by 176 runs

South Africa Test squad: Temba Bavuma (c), Marques Ackerman, David Bedingham, Corbin Bosch, Gerald Coetzee, Simon Harmer, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Dane Paterson, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Kyle Verreynne

Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster