Pat Cummins says Australia won’t be celebrating retaining the Ashes after rain at Old Trafford ensured they keep hold of the urn… as he admits to being frustrated at his own bowling and captaincy performance

Pat Cummins says there will be no big celebrations from the Aussies for retaining the Ashes after the fourth Test ended in a draw with no play possible at Old Trafford on Sunday.

England had dominated the opening three days in Manchester and looked well-placed to level the series at 2-2 heading into the weekend.

The Aussies will take their 2-1 lead into the final Test at The Oval, which begins on Thursday, with the trophy already decided but still with a chance to win their first series in England in more than two decades.

‘It’s a bit of a strange one,’ Cummins said. 

‘As a group [we’re] proud that we’ve retained the Ashes but it’s off the back of not our greatest week. It feels like it’s good to retain the Ashes, but we know we’ve got a fair bit of work to do for next week.

Pat Cummins says there will be no big celebrations from the Aussies after the fourth Test at Old Trafford was washed out

Cummins says his full focus is now on the next Test at The Oval which starts on Thursday

‘I don’t think there will be huge celebrations. Maybe a bit of a pat on the back for retaining the [Ashes]. There’s been a lot of work gone into putting us into a position where a draw does make us retain the Ashes. But there’s a Test match starting in three days so that’s going to be our full focus.

‘It’s a pretty similar group to 2019 when we retained it and we all came away feeling okay but we felt like we’d just missed what we’d come over to achieve.

‘In some regards whatever happened today wouldn’t really change how we look at next week. We want to win it to make sure we win it outright.’

Australia won two thrilling Tests at Edgbaston and Lord’s to move into a dominant position, but England gave themselves hope by coming out on top in another tightly fought contest at Headingley.

The momentum appeared to be with the hosts, and they did very little wrong at Old Trafford.

Australia didn’t function anywhere near their best – even Cummins’ bowling was significantly sub-par.

England dominated the opening three days in Manchester and looked well-placed to level the series at 2-2

The skipper admitted some frustrations with his bowling and captaincy performance

‘As a bowler it’s frustrating that I didn’t bowl very well at all, not up to the standards I try and keep myself to,’ Cummins said. 

‘I let through more boundaries than I normally do. Probably just one or two bad balls an over. I don’t know [why] really. [My] rhythm felt pretty good, I felt like I was pretty clear in my own mind with plans.

‘In terms of captaincy I think there has been a few of those moments where the [England] batters have played well, the game moves very quickly.

‘We knew coming into this series they were probably going to have a couple of days where it went their way and the game moves really quickly, so it was one of those days. It’s tough, frustrating, but that’s cricket. We’ve been on the other side of it plenty of times.’