Australian captain Pat Cummins has rejected a claim by former Test batter Usman Khawaja that his skin colour and Pakistani heritage influenced the decision to overlook him for the interim captaincy role. Khawaja raised the issue in his recent autobiography, suggesting he had been a natural candidate for the job, while he was Queensland captain at the time. He attributed the decision partly to his prominence during earlier pay disputes with Cricket Australia, as well as to his heritage and background.

Cummins addressed the claims directly at a press conference in Sydney on November 13. The Australian captain, appointed to the role in November 2021, said the idea that the job is quarantined from people based on their skin colour was a big statement that required evidence, which he said did not exist. While he agreed with Khawaja on a number of matters, he said he would tell him plainly when he disagreed, and that he could not accept the suggestion that an Australian captain must be a certain skin colour.S1S2

Cummins also responded to Khawaja's account of the 2018 ball-tampering scandal in South Africa. Khawaja had suggested in the autobiography that the entire team was aware of the incident, a characterisation Cummins called 100 percent wrong. He acknowledged that there had been an evolution in some of the language used in past years, pointing to a shift in team culture and communication standards within the Australian cricket setup.S2