It might not have been half a year since we last saw Pat Cummins on the cricket pitch, and that too, here in India for the famous T20 league- the Indian Premier League or the IPL, but it seems like a long time. A really long time. Since then, there’s been hardly any cricket that Australia have played, their most noticeable series being held recently in the Caribbean.
But the first leg of the series played in India, albeit unfortunately at a time where the second COVID 19 wave was at its harshest meant that tons of Australian, English, New Zealand and West Indies cricketers had to immediately leave or flee the country that was fast becoming a ground for COVID beds, one where there were more dead bodies than patients, with even funeral grounds were running low of the space to cremate the bodies.
Anyone who was even slightly aware of what was going on earlier in the country known for its colour, vivaciousness and charm would have come to know just how grossly it underestimated the COVID 19 pandemic only for all that disdainful trouble to begin.
Now, one of Australia’s most promising and well known contenders of both the red-ball as well as white-ball cricket is back to the scene and he’s wanting to go and give it his all in the wake of taking Australia to a position of cricketing ascendency, much like the older days.
image source: cricketcountry.com
And someone like a Pat Cummins can play and must play a huge role in that journey back up north for honestly, how often and far can the usual trinity of Starc, Smith and Warner do and till how long can these shining stars of Australian cricket rise and shine for the country?
A great answer, of late, in terms of a brute alternative force in the cricketing universe for Australia has been Pat Cummins, a real force of nature.
His 66 off mere 34 balls in the first leg of the IPL before his journey, much like others was cut short, was glaring indication of the lanky right-hander taking his all-round role nicely and seriously.
What can be expected now as the Australians are back? While Pat Cummins may surely have dreaded the sight of the West Indians slitting his team into a half on their recent white-ball tour to the Caribbean where the large margin of defeat suffered to Pooran’s men was by no stroke of imagination scant, what remains to be seen is how best can Cummins made do now?
“With a child on the way I’ve started to think more about the future of our children and grandchildren, nieces and nephews. They’re going to be the ones who will feel the effects of our actions right now. It has been a productive couple of weeks and everyone is ready to move on and start playing cricket and winning games. We’re over all the talking and ready to get back playing,” he’d add in an interaction with an Indian sports website.
Further on, he’d add some key insights on his imminent cricket plans, “Just like I want them to have a great education, great friendships, and a happy life, I want to make sure that we’re doing the best to look after this planet we all live on!”
If there’s one thing that the current Australian vice-captain would quite like to do then it would be playing a part in helping his team lift what it never previously has in the history of T20 cricket: the world cup, 2021. So can he do it? We will have to wait and see.