Pat Cummins

After his initial breakthrough into Australia’s national team as a teenager, Pat Cummins has developed into one of the finest and most decorated leaders in cricket history. A champion of ICC trophies in every format of the sport, Cummins has forged a new image of Australian cricket in recent years.

Cummins has become one of the most memorable names and faces in world cricket after he captained Australia to dual successes in the World Test Championship and the 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup, defeating the favoured Indians on both occasions. It has been a long and gradual journey to the top for the Aussie allrounder, who made his Australia debut at the age of 18.

The younger variant of Pat Cummins was fast and thrilling to watch, marking his Test debut with a 7-wicket haul against a strong South African red-ball unit in Johannesburg. Cummins had already been making waves on the domestic front across formats, as he went from making his T20 debut for New South Wales to securing an international contract within the space of a year. Cummins was the youngest Australian Test debutant in 58 years.

The next couple of years would be a difficult period for the incredibly promising Cummins, whose body struggled with the load of fast bowling. He first battled a heel injury and later a stress fracture in the back — the worst kind of injury for any pacer. As a recurring injury, it caused him to miss the best part of two years.

Cummins credits Australian fast bowling legend Dennis Lillee with helping him reform his bowling action to make it easier on his body. While Cummins did lose a touch of pace, he remained unerringly consistent and threatening with his lengths and his ability to make the ball move off the seam. Assisted by his infamous shortened middle finger, the top of which was lost in a childhood accident, Cummins has been able to make the ball dance off the pitch throughout his career.

After a six-year gap from long-form cricket, Cummins returned during the Sheffield Shield campaign in 2017, quickly followed by the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and Ashes within the following year. Despite his lengthy spell out, Cummins was quickly back at his best and established himself as one of the world’s leading pace bowlers.

2019 was a significant year for Cummins, as he was elevated to Test vice-captaincy in the wake of the sandpaper gate scandal. Cummins was at his finest that year, and his efforts were rewarded with the ICC Test Player of the Year award. He formed a deadly pace trio with Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, as Australia re-established themselves as the team to beat in the red-ball landscape.

Cummins was the natural successor to replace Tim Paine as Test captain in November 2021, and it speaks of his stature within Australian cricket. A bowler as Test captain is a rarity and usually goes against traditional cricket logic, but Cummins was by far the most popular choice. By representing the Aussies as captain in the Ashes that year, he became the first Australian fast bowler to be their permanent and full-time skipper in history.

It has been a greatly successful spell for Cummins, who would gain ODI captaincy in late 2022 as well. Beyond guiding Australia to glory in the longer formats, he has also begun to make waves in the shortest form of the game. He was sold for over INR 20 crore to Sunrisers Hyderabad ahead of the 2024 IPL auction, before taking consecutive hat-tricks in the T20 World Cup of 2024, becoming only the second player to ever do so.

Although bowling is his primary skill, Cummins is one of the most well-rounded cricketers in modern cricket, with his useful batting and fantastic leadership. Although he has been playing cricket professionally for over a decade, there seems to be fuel left in the tank yet. That is good news for Australian cricket, and a message of concern for everyone else.