“I felt like I was losing”: When frustrated Pat Cummins was not playing cricket for Australia despite winning Man of the Match in debut Test

On November 17th, 2011, an 18-year-old (18 years and 193 days to be precise) Pat Cummins made his Test debut for Australia against South Africa in Johannesburg. He became Australia’s youngest cricketer to make his Test debut since Ian Craig in 1953.

Ahead of his debut, Cummins had played just three FC matches in his career, and he made his debut in grade cricket just a year before. However, on the field, the tall pacer impressed everyone with his brilliant pace and consistency to bowl in the right areas. Australia won the match by two wickets, and the debutant was awarded the Man of the Match trophy.

Batter Hashim Amla was Cummins’ debut wicket, and he could just pick a single wicket in the 1st innings. However, in the second innings, Cummins took six wickets which included names like Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers. He also smashed the winning runs in that match. It was a dream debut, but what happened next was quite heartbreaking for the pacer.

When frustrated Pat Cummins was not playing cricket for Australia

After playing his debut match, Cummins had to wait for 1,946 days in order to play his next Test. After his first Test in 2011, Cummins’ 2nd Test came against India in Ranchi in 2017. The reason was a series of stress fractures in his back. In ABC Grandstand’s The Phil Davis Podcast, Cummins talked about the mindset in which he was in.

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Cummins had said that people were consoling him by saying that making a Test debut for Australia is itself a big achievement. However, Cummins had insisted that he saw players like Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, etc, in the changing room, who were consistently delivering from the last 15-20 years.

Cummins was very frustrated about the same and admitted that he felt like he is losing with every passing day. He revealed that despite the tough times, he never thought about quitting the game and believed that the tough phase will end eventually.

“People at that time were even talking saying ‘he’s made it’, ‘you’ve played a Test, you’ve become man of the match’ whereas in my head I thought, in my changing room I’ve got Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Mike Hussey — these guys are legends for 15, 20 years,” Cummins had said.

“I’ve got so much to prove and just being not able to … [It was] really hard, each injury was … that was the main thing, just the amount of cricket I felt like I was losing.”

From the sidelines to becoming Australia’s Test captain

After making his return in 2017, Cummins never looked back. He has now played 49 Tests for Australia, where he has scalped 217 wickets at an average of 21.51. The 29-year-old pacer was named the Test captain of Australia ahead of Ashes 2021-22 and his captaincy record Cummins is excellent as well. After Aaron Finch’s retirement, he was also named the new ODI captain.