I remember thinking I was naive to play Test cricket at 18, reveals Pat Cummins

After the embarrassment of being bowled out for 47 at Cape Town, Australia was looking down the barrel in the second Test in Johannesburg. They needed another 18 runs to win with two wickets to spare as a young Cummins walked out to face Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander. He had all of three first-class matches worth of experience, while Steyn — the world No.1 then — was running in with a new ball. 

"I just remember thinking: This is crazy! I've played three first-class games. Ricky Ponting has played 150 Test matches! I just felt like I should be playing first-grade cricket rather than a Test. I was really naïve," Cummins told ESPNCricinfo’s The Cricket Monthly. 

Somehow he got the Aussies over the line and — given the six-fer he’d picked up in the second innings — won the Man of the Match award. One day down the line, he’d grow to become the heir to Steyn’s throne as the best Test bowler in the world. 

But the route before Cummins was more treacherous than anyone could hope. For the next six years, Cummins would never play a day’s worth of Test cricket. Each year he walked out and answered questions about the latest injury that had cruelly ended his season before a match was played. The first one, a bruised heel, struck after the South Africa series. Then a side strain in June 2012, a back stress fracture in November, which would occur twice more, in August 2013 and September 2015, both prematurely ending his seasons.

"The initial injury was really frustrating in that I'd played one Test. And with that first injury, the second Test felt like it was getting further and further away. And the naïve 18-year-old started turning to, 'Maybe I'm a fragile 18-year-old who isn't up to the rigours of international cricket',” Cummins said.

"The hardest thing was not being able to play. If you're out of form, you can kind of take not playing. There's a reason for it. But when your body's not fit, it's totally out of your control. I'd never experienced that,” he continued. 

In the background, however, his positive and calm demeanour led the way as Cummins slowly built towards a Test-match return. It came sooner than he thought as compatriot Mitchell Starc suffered an injury during the tour of India in 2017. 

Since his comeback, Cummins has picked up more wickets than any other fast bowler, bowled more overs than most and, by February 2019, he rose to the top of bowlers’ rankings in Test cricket. Cummins does not consider the ranking in itself to be an indicator of greatness, as he only wants to win more games for his country. But the 26-year-old has developed an immense amount of respect for his fellow bowlers over the years.

"It's a lot more brutal on bowlers than I first thought. It didn't take long before I had a newfound respect for Starcy and Joshy and Siddle - just the amount of overs you have to bowl, especially in Australia, surprised me. Most Test matches you're bowling 40-odd overs and it was a bit of an eye-opener that you were bowling 20 overs, three or four then you've got to wake up do it again the next day,” Cummins added.

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