Pat Cummins Has No Concerns Over Sandpaper Revelations In Khawaja's Autobiography

Usman Khawaja's will release his autobiography amidst SA vs AUS Tests [Source: AFP]Usman Khawaja will release his autobiography, Sabr: Finding My Way in Cricket and Life, on November 3. The release will overlap with the Test leg of Australia's tour of South Africa.The first Test will begin on October 9 at Kingsmead, Durban. As expected, the infamous Sandpapergate has resurfaced, but Pat Cummins has spoken of absolute calm around potential revelations about the incident in Khawaja's book amidst the intense tour.Pat Cummins on potential Sandpapergate revelationsAustralia will play Tests in South Africa for the first time since the 2018 ball tampering in Cape Town. There is a lot of animosity between the sides regarding the incident, and on the eve of the first Test, Pat Cummins feels the Australian players and staff have already answered everything in these years.Pat Cummins revealed that Usman Khawaja gave him a heads-up about the autobiography, but he remains unfazed that any new version of the Cape Town incident comes out in public."Uz [Khawaja] gave me a buzz a few weeks back that he is releasing a book. He didn't go into too much detail, just basically gave me the heads-up that he is doing a book and, as always, no worries," Pat Cummins told reporters ahead of SA vs AUS 1st Test.ALSO READAustralia Predicted Playing XI vs South Africa, 1st Test, 2026"Tell your story. It's fine. It's obviously a long time ago and all the investigations, everything was done back then and we answered every question a million times," Pat Cummins added.Furthermore, Pat Cummins feels the whole group has already moved on from what happened in 2018 and are just looking forward to the upcoming series."It was dealt with then and all I can say is that as a group, we have moved on and we are very happy with the last eight to nine years how we have been as a group and evolved and obviously my focus is on captaining the cricket team."Pat Cummins also added.Pat Cummins and co. had denied any knowledge of ball-tamperingWhen the main perpetrator of ball tampering in Cape Town, Cameron Bancroft, was caught, he, alongside the captain and vice-captain David Warner, were handed bans. Once Bancroft was done serving his ban, in 2021, he had hinted that the bowlers had an idea of what was being carried out on the field.Days after his interview with the Guardian, the bowling group from the match — Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon — released a joint statement. They categorically denied having any prior knowledge of sandpaper being carried out to the field."We did not know a foreign substance was taken onto the field to alter the condition of the ball until we saw the images on the big screen at Newlands," they wrote.They also said even the well-respected match officials, Nigel Llong and Richard Illingworth, did not notice any changes in the condition of the ball upon inspection on the day. They asked to "end the rumour-mongering and innuendo" and move on.ALSO READFakhar Zaman To Be Challenged At Home? Pakistan vs Sri Lanka Player Battles- 1st T20I, 2026