England debutant Sam Billings has revealed that the current Australia skipper Pat Cummins sent him a funny message on the morning of Day 1 of the Hobart Test of the Ashes Test series. The message involved a scorecard in which Billings was dismissed for a duck and Cummins scored a hundred. The two players were teammates at Penrith and played together in the Sydney Premier Cricket as well.
Billings reacts
“One of the best things I ever did was play over here in club cricket, for Penrith with Pat Cummins,” debutant Billings said.
“He gave me a bit of s***, he sent me a message this morning with a scorecard from a game at Sutherland CC.
“I got a duck, he got a hundred. He reminded me of that this morning,” the wicketkeeper added.
A betting specialist, Billings was dismissed for a five-ball duck, batting at number four. On the other hand, Cummins, Australia's current Test team skipper, came at number six to score a superb 110 off 145 deliveries as Penrith defeated Sutherland by 214 runs. Cummins was the highest scorer in that game as Penrith had scored 388 runs in their innings.
Taking part in the Ashes Test series
The two have now taken the same field for the fifth Test match but in two opposing dugouts. Billings was only drafted into the England team after finger injuries to Jos Butler and Jonny Bairstow forced them to sit out of the final Test. Butler has already returned back to England, while Billings, named as the replacement was already in Australia playing for the Sydney Thunders in the ongoing Big Bash League (BBL).
30-year-old Billings could spell the end of the rough patch for the English team as they are in at 68 for 1 at the time of writing this report. With a 271-run target and two days in hand, Joe Root's side can salvage some pride having already trailed the Aussies 0-3 in the Ashes.
The English side will also add some valuable points to their tally in the World Test Championship (WTC) if they can manage to win the Pink-ball encounter.
