Cummins Shrugs at Khawaja's Book, but Sandpapergate's Oldest Question Remains

Pat Cummins wants the story closed, and he has chosen a sensible moment to say so. Australia's captain has been told that Usman Khawaja, whose international career ended in January, will publish an autobiography in November, and his public answer is a shrug: tell your story, it is fine. Whether the shrug holds depends less on the book than on a gap in the 2018 record that nobody has formally filled.

A heads-up, not a warning

According to Cummins, Khawaja rang a few weeks ago. "He didn't go into too much detail," the captain said, describing a call that amounted to notice that a book exists. Cummins' reply was that investigations were done back then and the group "answered every question a million times".

That is a deliberate tone. A captain who sounded anxious about a team-mate's memoir would turn a publishing date into a talking point. One who sounds relaxed leaves reporters little to chase. Analysis: the calm is as much tactical as personal, since it is the only posture that protects the first Test in Durban from a distraction.

The record the bowlers have already set

The facts of 2018 are narrow. Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were banned. Smith said the plan came from the "leadership group" on the third day of the third Test in Cape Town, and Bancroft was caught rubbing sandpaper on the ball that day.

The four bowlers in that match, Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, have denied prior knowledge. Their joint 2021 statement said they learned of a foreign substance only when the footage appeared on the ground's big screen. They also pointed out that umpires Nigel Llong and Richard Illingworth examined the ball and left it in play, having found no damage.

Where the unanswered question sits

Here is the awkward part. All three punished players were batters, and, as the BBC's report notes, no account was ever given of how the bowlers missed any alteration to the ball. Bancroft, asked in a 2021 Guardian interview whether the bowlers knew, called it "pretty probably self-explanatory". The bowlers' statement followed within days.

Nothing in the supplied material says Khawaja's book will address any of this. Cummins himself described the potential for revelations only in terms of his own lack of concern. Analysis: the point is not that something is coming, but that a book from someone who featured throughout the 2018 series is the kind of publication that reopens a conversation which the bowlers' own statement called rumour-mongering.

A group that says it has moved on

Cummins put the distance at "the last eight to nine years" and said his focus is on captaining the team. Starc struck a similar note earlier this week, asking what more could emerge after eight years. On Thursday, Cummins told ABC it is "nothing new" and that the issue "hasn't taken up too much of our time", adding that if anyone needs a helping hand when a crowd gets rowdy, the group is around.

The unity is the message. The four bowlers are again set to be together for the opening Test, which makes Durban a quiet piece of symbolism whether or not anyone intends it.

The cricket still has to be played

Cummins has more practical problems. Cameron Green is out injured, so the call for a middle-order spot is expected to come down to Cooper Connolly or Nic Maddinson. South Africa have picked two spinners, Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer, for a surface in Durban that should offer turn.

Durban starts a run of marquee overseas tours for Australia. A demanding home summer against New Zealand comes in between, and after that the squad heads to India before an Ashes defence on English soil next year. Cummins and Khawaja played 56 Tests together, and a calm answer now is cheap. The test is whether it survives November, when the book is on shelves and Australia are in the middle of a demanding year.

Research: This article uses the archived evidence supplied for this story. Story inspiration: BBC Sport's original report.