Pat Cummins impresses on Test debut

The much hyped 18 yr old Aussie fast bowler Pat Cummins made his Test debut in the recently concluded 2nd Test against South Africa at Johannesburg. He had been getting a lot of good press for his performances in the T20 and ODIs against the Proteas. He was expected to make his debut in the ensuing Tests and he indeed made his debut. A debut that is worth remembering for long.

Cummins has turned out to be the find of the tour for Australia without a shade of any doubt. His emergence is indeed good tidings for the entire world cricket scene that has been marred by a variety of issues, none more demeaning than the spot fixing controversy. At 18, he was the country’s second-youngest Test debutant of all time but the way he performed over the five days in Johannesburg, suggests that he has a bright future in world cricket.

He was his side’s best bowler in both the innings, he swung the ball and used his bouncers wisely, taking 6 for 79 in the second innings and seven for the game. The icing on the cake was he hit the winning runs in his side’s tense chase of 310. He was calm when he came onto bat , with Australia needing 18 runs to win with two wickets in hand; he hit 13 of them, including a four off Imran Tahir to seal the result. Such a high impact debut has not been seen in a long while. All the hype about this kid seems well justified for sure.

In safe hands

He should be managed well

Like any other prodigal talent, Cummins must also be managed well. Sachin was handled very well in his teenage and that was partly responsible for his blossoming into the world beater that he is today. Kids like Parthiv Patel and Irfan Pathan weren’t handled properly and their careers never really took off after the initial days of promise.

The Aussie fans are excited about the prospect of seeing Cummins play at home, but with six Tests coming up this summer – two against New Zealand and four against India – it will be a heavy workload on Cummins if he is to play all these matches. Apart from the Tests, Australia will play two Twenty20s against India in January, and up to 11 one-day internationals in the tri-series with India and Sri Lanka. Too much burden for a young kid to manage.

In addition to this, he will also be having his state commitments for New South Wales. For his very first year in first class cricket, this kid is definitely prolific. Skipper Michael Clarke realizes this and he is smart and mature enough to understand that he can’t be playing all the formats so soon.

So, we have a captain who is firmly behind his latest blue eyed boy and who understands what he can bring to the field. More importantly ‘The Pup’ also seems to be aware of the need to preserve this kid who is all set to take the world by storm in the coming years.

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Edited by Staff Editor
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