Fans call for Steve Smith to take over as Aussie Test captain permanently from Pat Cummins

The drums have begun to beat for the reigning Australian Test cricket captain, Pat Cummins, with fans calling for Steve Smith to replace him at the helm.

But the former Australian skipper is having none of it, and Smith declares his time as captain is over.

Cummins left the subcontinent to be by his terminally ill mother after the first two Tests, both won by India.

The second Test included a regrettable batting collapse that saw Australia lose 9-47 in a chaotic morning session.

Ultimately it cost them the Test and a chance to win back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

While many of the comments about Cummins have been cruel and undeserving of oxygen, the elephant in the room is Steve Smith.

Cummins played the first two Tests before flying back to Australia to be by his ailing mother in hospice care.

The former captain, stripped of his title and suspended for a year following the Sandpapergate scandal in Cape Town in 2016, stepped up to score with ease in the third Test against India.

Now fans are wondering who is the best man for the job at the test level.

“Steve Smith is a much better captain than Pat Cummins,” posted one fan after the win in Indore.

“Nothing against Pat Cummins and I think he’s been good as a captain. But there’s something about Smith as captain that just feels right,” posted another.

“In my opinion, he showed that he has always been a better captain than Pat Cummins,” added another.

Other fans have pointed to the workload on Cummins, who is already the ODI skipper and is also likely to inherit the T20 captaincy from the retired Aaron Finch.

“As a pacer, it’s not sustainable for Cummins to play for Australia in every format,” suggested one fan.

‘It would be better if a captain was available for all games. And Smith definitely isn’t a bad choice either. He also did a great job in Indore and was also ahead in terms of tactics and strategy,’ said another.

But it’s likely to be a moot point with Smith playing a straight bat to the media questioning whether he could return permanently to the captaincy position in the Australian Test team.

“My time is up,” he said.

Now it’s Pat’s team. Obviously I’ve been able to stay on my feet this week, obviously under difficult circumstances with Patty going home. Our thoughts are still with him at home as well.

Smith, right, shakes hands with India’s Mohammed Siraj, second left, after Australia won the third Test cricket match against India in Indore.

Cummins has had a heavy workload since taking over the captaincy of the Australian Test and ODI teams.

‘Look, India is a part of the world that I love to captain. It’s a chess game, each ball means something. it’s good to just move people around and try to get the hitter to do something different and just play with them. It’s probably my favorite place in the world to be a captain.

Smith then added some strategy notes highlighting his cricketing smarts and why he was made captain in the first place before Sandpapergate.

“You think about home in Australia and you’re usually playing a third slide or putting in a third slide to cover or your square leg up or back or something,” he said.

There’s not much of that going on with it. Just stick to the same game plan and try to trust what you’re trying to do there.

‘But in this part of the world you have to be really proactive. Each ball is an event and therefore can dictate what happens next, which is something I really love and you have to be ahead of the game.

“So I thought I did well this week and it was a lot of fun.”