There have only ever been 12 instances of a captain winning all 5 tosses in a 5-Test series, and thankfully, Pat Cummins avoided becoming the unlucky 13th captain to be on the end of a 5-0 coin toss sweep against Ben Stokes, and you'd be surprised to know, the last captains to be involved in a 5-0 coin toss sweep are....
Joe Root and Virat Kohli, as Root swept Virat 5-0 in the 2018 series between England and India in England, which laid the foundation for England winning the series 4-1, and another fun fact is that West Indian legend Sir Garfield Sobers is the only captain to win all 5 coin tosses in a series twice.
If Ben Stokes had won the toss today, it would've marked only the fifth time a clean sweep has happened in a 5-Test Ashes series:
1905: Prior to the 1st Test, Australian captain Joe Darling broke tradition by tossing his own coin as touring captain... he lost the toss to England's Frank Stanley Jackson, who won all 5 tosses and elected to bat all 5 times, as England won the series 2-0 with 3 draws, making Darling the only Australian captain to lose all 5 tosses in a 5-Test series.
By the end of the tour, Darling suggested a wrestling match with Jackson in lieu of a coin toss to decide who batted first during a tour match at Scarborough - Jackson won that coin toss as well.
1909: Australian captain Monty Noble won all 5 tosses against England's Archie Maclaren, and made it count as Australia won the series 2-1 to retain the urn, sealed by a draw in the 4th Test at Old Trafford.
It wouldn't be the last time an Australian team retained the urn with a draw at Old Trafford.
1953: Australian captain Lindsay Hassett won all 5 tosses against England's Len Hutton, but it was all for naught, as the first four Tests were drawn, then England won the 5th Test at The Oval to reclaim The Ashes for the first time since 1934, making this the first, and only, 5-Test series in history in which a team lost all 5 tosses but won the series.
1998-99: 45 years after the last coin toss sweep, along came Mark Taylor, in his last Test series as Australian captain before retirement, and Tubby would extend Australia's dominance over England by winning all 5 tosses against Alec Stewart as Australia went on to win the series 3-1-1, retaining the urn by the 3rd Test, marking their sixth consecutive Ashes series win during the 16-year run with the urn.
In a funny trend, in the 1st, 3rd and 5th Tests, Taylor elected to bat, and in the 2nd and 4th Tests, Taylor elected to field.
If you want to see the entire list of coin toss clean sweeps by a captain in a Test series, Cricinfo has compiled it all
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