Pat Cummins

Having burst onto the scene as a 17-year-old who topped the wicket-taker list in the 2010-11 state-based Big Bash League, Pat Cummins was quickly identified as a future star.

Soon enough in 2011-12, the Sydney boy became the youngest player ever to earn a central contract with Cricket Australia.

On the back of just a handful of first-class games, he was thrown into the deep end of Test cricket against South Africa in 2011. Showing no signs of nerves, he took 6-79 in the second innings and hit the winning runs to be named player of the match in Australia’s narrow win.

After a long run of injuries, Cummins returned to the NSW side for the Marsh One-Day Cup and was part of the Australian squad that won the 2015 ODI World-Cup.

After careful management and working his way back to full fitness in shorter forms of the game, Cummins became a Test fixture from the 2017-18 Ashes onwards, spearheading an enviable pace attack alongside Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.

He quickly rose to be the world’s No.1 ranked bowler in Test cricket, and was part of the side that won Australia’s first ever men’s T20 World Cup in 2021.

In November 2021, just days out from the opening Test of that summer’s Ashes series, Pat Cummins became Australia’s 47th Test captain.

He was then appointed the nation’s 27th men’s ODI skipper in 2022, leading Australia back to the pinnacle a year later in what some have lauded as the nation’s greatest World Cup triumph with a flawless captaincy and bowling performance to defeat India in the final to silence the 100,000-strong home crowd in Ahmedabad.