Ahead of the upcoming second Test against New Zealand, Australia skipper Tim Paine on Wednesday praised team-mate Pat Cummins and called him the 'best bowler' in the world right now.
Paine also said that Cummins has the statistics to back it up. The Australian pacer is currently the number one ranked ICC Test bowler.
"He is clearly the best bowler in the world, his stats will probably back that up. Not just for one series, or one Test, or two Tests here or there, he has done it every game," cricket.com.au quoted Paine as saying.
"I think he is getting better with experience as well, I think you are noticing he is not always bowling high-140s anymore, which is a great, great attribute and skill," he added.
This year, Cummins became the second-fastest Australian paceman behind Charlie Turner to reach the figure of 100 Test wickets.
The pacer had recorded a six-wicket haul in the first Test against New Zealand, and this enabled Australia to gain a comfortable victory over the visitors.
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Last week, Cummins became the most expensive foreign player in the history of Indian Premier League (IPL) as he was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for a whopping amount of INR 15.5 crore.
Australia and New Zealand will take on each other in the second Test from December 26-30.