Former Australian wicket-keeper Ian Healy has called for Pat Cummins to be replaced as Australian captain, fearing the burden and burnout could shorten his career.
Cummins is currently back in Australia to attend to a family matter, and will miss the third Test of the disastrous tour of India as a result.
Australia have conceded any chance of winning back the Border-Gavaskar trophy in less than six days of cricket, losing the first Test to India by an innings, and the second by six wickets, both inside three days.
Batting collapses and the inability to remove the Indian tail have headlined the series for Australia, who still need a draw from the final two Tests to mathematically confirm their spot in the World Test Championship final, which would also likely come against India at the Oval in June.
While attention won't turn to that match yet, Healy has suggested on SEN Radio that Cummins attempting to captain both the Test and ODI teams while also being one of the world's leading bowlers will be too much over any length of time.
Cummins could yet also take on the T20I captaincy following the retirement of Aaron Finch, with a World Cup in the ODI format at the back-end of this year, and a T20I World Cup in the middle of next year, to be held in the West Indies and United States of America.
“I don't want him [Cummins] carrying the burden of so much captaincy for too long,” Healy said.
“I want him to finish as just a bowler. The captaincy creates a burnout and four to five years is a long time as captain.
“He's done a few years already. now he's adding short-form captaincy to his thought process at a time when he's dealing with some sort of family illness back home.
“So yeah, I would like to see him finish his career as a tearaway fast bowler and someone else with the captaincy burden.”
Cummins took over the Test captaincy after Tim Paine stood down from the role ahead of the last home Ashes series.
He openly admitted captaining the ODI team as well may be too much in the lead-up to taking the role, but he is backed up strongly by Steve Smith, who could be an option to finish his career as Test captain, should Cummins be replaced in the role.
Healy didn't see it that way though, suggesting Travis Head as the candidate to be considered.
“I think Travis Head is quite capable,” Healy said.
“He's led South Australia since he was a 21-year-old, he's quite capable and has got a lot of experience. He's the main one that stands out to me.
“The likes of Glenn Maxwell might be able to do parts of it in the short form, but as far as longer-term captaincy prospects other than Travis Head, I can't think of any.”
Head was dropped for the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar series, but returned for the second in Delhi where he batted strongly. He is now being considered to open the batting in the third Test, to be played from Wednesday at Indore, after David Warner was ruled out of the remainder of the series with injury.
