Cummins goes from drinks waiter to Ashes main man

SYDNEY: Four years ago Pat Cummins was pretty happy to be running drinks in an Ashes series in England. Fair enough too, given that his injury record over the preceding few summers had made his selection for Test matches a near impossibility.

In 2019, however, Cummins looms as perhaps the key figure in the entire series, given his outstanding displays in Test matches for Australia to date that have made him by far the most reliable contributor to the attack that Tim Paine will marshal as captain in the touring side’s attempt to retain the urn in England for the first time since 2001. When Cummins was called up in 2015, after a succession of injuries finally forced Ryan Harris into retirement, it was without any first-class cricket to his credit for preceding two years.

A couple of tour games were the sum total of his playing time, and it was not to be until 2017 that Cummins returned to Test matches for the first time since his storied 2011 debut.

In that time he has rushed to 94 wickets in 20 Tests, and six victims in the series opener at Edgbaston would make him the fastest into three figures for Australia since Charlie “Terror” Turner in the 1890s. “I think I had only played a couple of first-class games, I might have played my first first-class game in about three or four years on that tour.”