James Anderson puts his weight behind Pat Cummins to become Australia skipper

England pacer James Anderson has backed Pat Cummins to take over Australia's leadership reigns from Tim Paine, who recently stepped down from his post after his sexting scandal came to light. Cricket Australia (CA) has revealed that Pat Cummins and Steve Smith are leading the race to grab the skipper role. Smith was Australia's captain till 2018 but was stripped off his duties after his involvement in the ball-tampering saga in South Africa.  Anderson feels that bowlers think a lot about game thus Cummins should be given an opportunity to lead the team.

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"I think more bowlers should be captain. The only issue then is trying to get the time off - when you're off the field, you want to switch off, whereas if you're captain you've got to watch the game and be in it and you can't switch off maybe as much," Sydney Morning Herald quoted Anderson as saying.

"Bowlers do think a lot about the game. We are thinking cricketers now. I think he'd be good at it. You can see he leads brilliantly in the team. He's a leader of the bowling attack and you can see he's got that ability, so why not give him a chance?

"There are lots of arguments why it would suit to have a bowler as captain, but it's just not the done thing, is it? Captains like to look good at first slip and look like they're making all the field-position changes and doing all the good stuff. But I'm all for it," he added.

Meanwhile, Paine has apologised for his behaviour and said he is grateful to his family for forgiving him. "I spoke to my wife and family at the time and am enormously grateful for their forgiveness and support. We thought this incident was behind us and that I could focus entirely on the team, as I have done for the last three or four years," cricket.com.au quoted Paine as saying.