Pat Cummins, Test cricketer?

It’s the first week of December and Christmas trees are being put up in houses all over Australia. Excited kids are waiting for the morning of the 25th. Some won’t have the patience. They’ll go hunting for presents hidden in wardrobes, or lift the sticky-tape on a piece of wrapping paper, take a peek at what’s inside. And on Christmas morning they’ll regret it. A moment of impulse and everything is spoiled.

It feels a little like that in Australian cricket right now. What do we want? Pat Cummins. When do we want him? Now! And indeed, Cummins is ready to play his first internationals in nearly 15 months, as part of Australia’s attack for the Chappell-Hadlee campaign against New Zealand. These three ODIs mark his international return from yet another long lay-off due to stress fractures of the back. At most, he will bowl 30 overs across six days with a white ball.

And yet there are rumblings that he should be rushed back into the Test side, perhaps for February’s tour of India, but maybe even in the pink-ball Test against Pakistan at the Gabba. On Inside Cricket this week, Brad Haddin was adamant that Cummins should be in contention for Brisbane if he came through the Chappell-Hadlee series fit and in form.

“If he gets through these three one-dayers … traditionally these day-night games [Tests] haven’t been going five days and the quick bowlers might only have to bowl 16 overs in a day,” Haddin said. “If you use him right in a Test match, he only has to bowl four-over spells.”

Darren Berry, the former Victoria captain and ex-coach of South Australia, voiced a similar opinion on SEN radio on Friday morning: “Surely he plays the three days and if he’s up, and he fires, straight into the Brisbane Test.”

Notably, those who are closer to the Australia setup are more measured. National selector Mark Waugh, on the Inside Cricket panel alongside Haddin, said that while Cummins …

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