Fit and firing, Pat Cummins relishes the grind

In November 2011, an 18-year-old Pat Cummins made his Test debut, and in terms of his skill and mental approach, looked as ready for the pinnacle of international cricket as someone 10 years his senior. With second-innings figures of 6/79, and an ice-cool unbeaten 13 as Australia chased 310, he spearheaded a two-wicket win over South Africa, and looked set for a long and fruitful career at the top level.

However, though he appeared the finished article in many ways, he was still a teenager, and his body was still developing. Cummins has had more growing pains than most. By the start of 2017, he had yet to add to his solitary Test cap, and many assumed that his first Test would also end as his last, his career a case of ‘what might have been’. That he has recovered to the extent that he can bowl without needing to rein himself in at all, free from the fear of injury, is therefore immensely gratifying to hear.

“My body at the moment is one thing I don't have to think about anywhere near as much as I used to, so it's brilliant,” Cummins said after the first day of Australia’s third Test against South Africa. “I feel like I can just go out there and bowl as fast as I can each spell, and a four-Test series at the back of a five-match [series] is a pretty long series, but I just have to worry about staying fresh and bowling well rather than any injuries.”

All his fitness was on display in a lionhearted afternoon spell of 8-3-12-4 which tore through South Africa. Cummins was unrelenting, running in time and again, never letting the pressure drop, and his efforts paid dividends.

“I quite like long spells because it normally means you're into a rhythm, he said. “I don't think [Smith] could have got the ball out of my hand. He just kept asking if I was good for another one ... it felt like I had a bit of a wind behind me and wickets always make the legs feel a bit fresher and I think by my last over I was ready to hand it over.”

The fast bowler’s efforts were needed today more than ever; until he began his mammoth spell, Australia were wilting, and Dean Elgar and AB de Villiers were making hay. The pair added 128 to take the Proteas to 220/2, and though Elgar battled through to stumps unbeaten on 121, Cummins’ removal of de Villiers for 64 set in motion a collapse of six wickets for 37 runs which gave Australia the ascendancy at the close of play.

“They were two down at tea and we thought we were in for a pretty long day today and maybe into tomorrow,” said Cummins. “It probably crossed most of our minds that the two guys who were in and had a really good partnership looked really set and the wicket wasn't doing too much, so I felt like I could've been in for a long day.

“To get the AB breakthrough, that's the big one, they were scoring freely, and once he was out it was like a new batsman starting against the reversing ball is always hard, and that put us right on the way. To have them 8 for 260 at the start of the day you'd have definitely taken that."

Cummins finished the day with figures of 4/64. It is the fifth time in 11 Tests since his return to the side in 2017 that he has taken four in an innings, but his debut remains the only time he has captured a five-wicket haul. He might have already gone a long way to bringing his side another memorable victory in South Africa, just as he did all that time ago in 2011.

Should he take one of the two South African wickets left to fall tomorrow morning, it would certainly be just rewards for years of toil, and put the seal on one of cricket’s most heartwarming tales of resilience and recovery.