"I think England annoyed him" - Ian Healy lauds Pat Cummins' all-round performance in 1st Ashes Test

Ian Healy feels England's verbal duels with Pat Cummins when he was batting brought the best out of the Australian skipper in the first Ashes Test.

Australia completed a two-wicket win against England at Edgbaston in Birmingham on Tuesday, June 20. Cummins starred with both ball and bat, including a match-defining unbeaten 44 in the second innings when the visitors were in a spot of bother.

During an interaction on the SEN podcast 'Dwayne's World', Healy was asked about Cummins' all-round effort in the second innings and the win creating a legacy for the Aussie skipper, to which he responded:

"And with the bat in the first innings, the 38 he got there whilst we were collapsing around him. That was great to see. Just his free swing of the bat again and finding the middle of the bat shows me that he has been doing a lot of work on that batting because it has been disappointing for a couple of years. So that's great."

The former Australian wicketkeeper added:

"I think England annoyed him. They talked to him when they bowled to him in the first innings. They attacked him very aggressively and he thought - 'I am going to stay in here, I am getting a hang of this'. They got him going I reckon with the bat."

Cummins scored a valuable 38 runs in Australia's first innings after walking out to bat with the score reading 338/6. He smoked three sixes during that effort and was the last wicket to fall while trying to play another big shot.

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"I had him nearly as Man of the Match" - Ian Healy on Pat Cummins

Pat Cummins picked up four wickets in England's second innings.

Ian Healy concluded by stating that Pat Cummins' all-round effort was not too far behind Usman Khawaja's Player of the Match performance:

"With the ball, I think two four-fors, I had him nearly as Man of the Match. He was right up there with Usman Khawaja. For him to bowl long spells of great quality, seaming the ball off the wicket and swinging it when it was swinging. So he had an amazing game - one of the great captains' performances in a Test match."

Khawaja scored 141 and 65 runs respectively in his two innings of the Edgbaston Test. Although Cummins went wicketless in England's first innings, he returned figures of 4/63 in their second essay apart from vital efforts with the bat in both innings.