Pat Cummins praised for ‘beautiful gesture’ during Australia’s Ashes party

As he and his fellow Aussies began their victory celebrations, skipper Cummins noticed a team-mate was being left out of the revelry and acted quickly to put that right

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Pat Cummins was keen for every one of his Ashes players to celebrate their series success and made a classy gesture to make sure one of his team-mates was not left out.

Australia were very strong throughout the series, winning four of the five matches but prevented from a complete whitewash with England forcing a draw in the fourth Test.

It still meant another comfortable series victory on home soil, though, and after confirming the win in the final Test the celebrations began.

Captain Cummins had the glass replica of the Ashes trophy in hand and several other members of the side were spraying champagne in what is a common celebration in many sports.

It did lead to batter Usman Khawaja stepping away, though, due to his religious beliefs.

Khawaja is a Muslim, a faith in which the consumption of alcohol is forbidden and any association with it is greatly frowned-upon.

Cummins noticed Khawaja was hanging away from the celebrations and quickly deduced why, and could be seen turning to his team-mates to ask them to put their bottles away.

Once the champagne was hidden from view, Khawaja felt comfortable re-joining his colleagues and they were able to celebrate as a whole team.

The move was reminiscent of a similar move made by former England skipper Alastair Cook in 2018, when they were celebrating a Test success.

Just as the England players were ready to pop their corks and spray champagne over each other, Cook noticed Moeen Ali was standing away from his colleagues as he did not want to be involved due to his faith.

His team-mates made sure the champagne stayed on ice for a few moments more until Ali had joined them for a team photo, before making sure Ali was well out of the way before the spraying began.

Fans noticed Cummins’ gesture after the celebrations in Australia on Sunday, and took to social media to give credit to the skipper.

“This might be a small gesture but this is what makes Pat Cummins great,” one fan wrote. “He realised Khawaja had to dip because of the booze and rectifies it.”

Another said: “Pat Cummins asking his teammates to stop throwing alcohol around so that Usman Khawaja can join in because of his beliefs. That’s sweet.”

And a third described Cummins as a “great player and an amazing human being”.