Pat

Cummins

Pat Cummins Biography and Career

Pat Cummins is an Australian fast bowler who captains the men’s ODI and Test team. He is widely renowned the best fast bowling captain of the modern era and has already led his team to ODI World Cup and World Test Championship glory alongside taking his team to the No. 1 ranking in Test cricket.

Cummins’ story could have easily gone pear-shaped if not for timely intervention from the medical staff and the fast bowler himself, who was determined to make it big. Cummins first burst onto the scene when he topped the wicket-taker’s list at the 2010-11 state-based Big Bash League. He was quickly fast-tracked into the national setup and was just 18 when he made Test debut for Australia in 2011.

With only a few first-class games in his kitty, Cummins made his debut against South Africa in Johannesburg. He was Australia’s youngest Test debutant since Ian Craig in 1952, but he came out with flying colours. In the second innings, Cummins picked 6 for 79 and he also hit the winning runs, an effort which saw him named player of the match.

As it turned out, that was the only Test Cummins played for six years. He played the 2012 T20 World Cup and the Champions League, but a stress fracture of the back ruled him out for the 2012-13 season. He returned for one game in late 2013, but a recurrence of the stress fracture kept him out for a further year.

Cummins then worked with former Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee, who re-shaped his bowling action and Cummins slowly made his way back to the international fold. He was part of the Australia side that won the 2015 ODI World Cup at home. He was also called up for the Ashes that year, but didn’t play a game.

Cummins finally returned to Sheffield Shield in March 2017, and showed promise bowling plenty of overs. He finally made a return to Test cricket the same month during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Since then, Cummins has been injury-free and slowly become the leader of the Australia pace battery.

When Australia emerged from the ball-tampering scandal of 2018, Cummins became their shining light as he single-handedly took his side out of the negativity and soon emerged to be their blue-eyed boy.  In January 2019, Cummins was named as one of two vice-captains alongside Travis Head.

Cummins played nonstop international cricket for the next few years across formats and became one of the best bowlers in world cricket, one who was feared and respected at the same time.

It was inevitable that Cummins would gradually become the Australian captain, and he was crowned in November 2021 after Tim Paine stood down. Australia defeated England 4-0 in Ashes 2021-22 under Cummins’ captaincy, while they won in Pakistan as well.

That led to Cummins being named ODI captain in November 2022 after Aaron Finch retired. Cummins then led Australia to a win over India in the 2023 WTC final, but his biggest campaign undoubtedly came in the 2023 ODI World Cup. Having gone into the final as underdogs in front of a packed Narendra Modi Stadium against India, Cummins silenced the crowd by leading his side to their sixth ODI World Cup title.

Then in 2024-25, Cummins helped Australia win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in almost ten years. He was the second-highest wicket-taker in the series.

Cummins in the IPL

Cummins made his IPL debut in 2014 when he was picked by Kolkata Knight Riders. He then played for Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals) in IPL 2017 and then did not play in the league in 2018 and 2019. In IPL 2020, Cummins became one of the most expensive overseas players in the league, picked for Rs. 15.5 crore. In 2024, Cummins was for a few minutes the most-expensive player in the history of the IPL when he was picked for Rs 20.5 crore by Sunrisers Hyderabad. He was subsequently named captain and he responded by taking his team to the final of the tournament for the first time in a while.

Cummins was retained and will captain SRH again in IPL 2025

Beyond cricket

Cummins married his long-time girlfriend Becky Boston in August 2022 and has one son, Albie.

Cummins has become the face of Australia's fast bowling unit in recent years. He has a massive fan following all over the world. On Instagram, Cummins has close to 3 million followers while on Twitter (now X), he has close to 300k followers.

Cummins also has a number of brand endorsements to his name such as Carrera, New Balance, Rario, Kayo Sports, and Hublot to name a few.

Cummins also has an interesting story from his childhood. In an interview, he revealed that when he was three years old, his sister accidentally slammed the door shut on his finger taking about three centimetres off his middle finger. 

"I still get my sister in tears ... (because) she slammed the door on it," he said in an interview. "It doesn't really affect me because (the finger) is about the same length as the other one (index finger)."

Pat Cummins Records

Pat Cummins T20 records

• Cummins picked up three wickets in a single over on T20 debut
• At the T20 World Cup 2024, Cummins became only the second Australian to take a World Cup hat-trick
• He is the only player in the world to register back to back T20 World Cup hat-tricks

Pat Cummins Test records

• Cummins was the first fast bowler to be named Australian Test captain
• He was the first Australian captain to win the World Test Championship
• Cummins was awarded the prestigious Allan Border Medal in 2019, an award given to the most outstanding Australian cricketer over the previous 12 months. Cummins was also named the 2019 ICC men’s Test cricketer of the year.
• He is the joint-fourth quickest to 100 Test wickets by an Australian. He got to the mark in 21 Tests.
• In 2019, Cummins became the No. 1 ranked bowler in Test cricket. He reached 914 rating points, which is the highest for an Australian bowler in history.

Pat Cummins ODI records

• Cummins is the fourth-fastest Australian bowler to 100 ODI wickets. He reached the landmark in his 62nd ODI.

Pat Cummins IPL records

• For approximately one year, Cummins held the record for the fastest fifty in the IPL, joined with KL Rahul – off 14 balls
• He captained the SRH team which qualified for the final of the 2024 IPL final

Pat Cummins International records

• He won the Garfield Sobers Award in January 2024, which is the ICC award for the men’s cricketer of the year