Australia relieved Cummins’ Covid contact does not seem to hit too hard | Geoff Lemon

England endured a grim Ashes day in the field despite seeing their opposing captain ruled out hours before the second Test

With great regularity across several decades of men’s Ashes cricket, England’s tours to Australia have seemingly been cursed by luck. There was Simon Jones and his knee, Steven Harmison and his yips, Chris Silverwood and his playing career. Coin tosses lost when they hurt most, won when they would have been better avoided. Coming to Australia to win was hard enough, but the dark hand of fate would still see fit to intervene.

For a couple of hours on Thursday morning Adelaide time, fate settled on a different target. That was when the news came through that the Australian captain, Pat Cummins, though fit, was ruled out of the imminent Test match after being identified as a close contact of a positive Covid-19 case. Through those pre-match warm-ups, through the early anticipation, some English minds would have wondered if this was a series turning point, the new version of Glenn McGrath rolling an ankle at Edgbaston in 2005.

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