Road to 300: All of captain Pat's milestone wickets

Wicket No.1

Hashim Amla c Ponting b Cummins

 

(Johannesburg, November 2011)

Australia's second youngest debutant in 134 years of Test cricket immediately lived up to the hype generated from rapid spells at domestic level. Well, almost immediately.

"That first session I felt like I bowled decently and didn't take a wicket," Cummins, reflecting on his first Test, told cricket.com.au in 2022.

"I think I'd bowled 8-10 overs, I was pretty impatient. I was a bit flat at myself that I didn't already take a wicket.

"Now I look back and think that's naïve. It doesn't even really feel like me, it feels so long ago – I was literally a kid."

Desperate to avoid being "that one-Test player who never took a wicket", Cummins managed that – and more.

The 18-year-old took the new ball alongside Mitchell Johnson and while his initial spell was seen off by a formidable South African top-order, Hashim Amla succumbed after lunch.

The right-hander threw his hands at a wide, full delivery and Ricky Ponting made no mistake at second slip with the hot chance above his head.

Cummins' dream entrance continued, snagging six second-innings wickets as he showed astonishing resilience for a teenager.

He sent down 44 overs for the match, hit the winning runs to boot, but was in agony midway through the match.

"I'd never bowled with anywhere near that kind of pain," Cummins said 10 years later. "I thought, 'How the hell does anyone play 100 Tests?'"

Wicket No.50

Hashim Amla c Paine b Cummins

 

(Gqeberha, March 2018)

Cummins' 50th Test wicket was eerily similar to his first – "almost identical" in the bowler's own words – yet much had changed by the time he got Amla out a second time.

There were the six years when his Baggy Green gathered dust as he battled a succession of injuries. There was his comeback in 2017 that culminated in a home Ashes series win in which he remained fit throughout.

And by the time the second Test of Australia's ill-fated 2018 tour of South Africa rolled around, Cummins was 10 matches into a run of 13 straight and was fast establishing himself as one of the game's best bowlers.

AB de Villiers' earlier batting brilliance at St George's Park meant Amla taking the bait on another wide Cummins offering (this time wicketkeeper Tim Paine accepted the nick) was mere consolation in the Proteas fourth-innings pursuit of just 101.

The series would soon be overshadowed by the ball-tampering controversy in the ensuing Cape Town Test.

Yet the significance of Cummins' milestone in Gqeberha (then called Port Elizabeth) had not passed him by.

"I remember feeling a sense of pride when I saw the 50 wickets come up on the screen," he said.

"If someone told me, even a year earlier, that I was going to reach 50 Test wickets, I would have been absolutely pumped.

"So there was a certain amount of pride that that was about my 10th back-to-back Test match at that stage."

Wicket No.100

Jonny Bairstow c Bancroft b Cummins

 

(Edgbaston, August 2019)

At the time, Australia's win in the 2019 Ashes opener ranked among Cummins' proudest moments.

"After that game, Mum and Dad and my brother walked in the changeroom - they later said, 'that was the happiest we've ever seen you'," the paceman recalled.

It had been Cummins who left his side in the perilous position of 8-122 five days earlier when he was lbw to Ben Stokes in Australia's first innings, putting England in a dominant position midway through the first day of the series.

Steve Smith, playing his first Test since his ball tampering scandal, put together arguably his greatest international performance; 144 in the first innings batting mainly with the tail, 142 in the second to leave the hosts needing almost 400 to win.

Cummins was irrepressible, taking the four fourth-innings wickets Nathan Lyon (6-49) did not. His wrangling out of Bairstow, a short-ball bashed in to the dusty final-day wicket that stayed low, highlighted his clever use of the conditions.

Cummins recalled that while Joel Wilson, the umpire who had a rough series, "took a little while to give it", this one was shown to be a solid decision as the bumper had brushed the strap of Bairstow's glove before ballooning to Cameron Bancroft at third slip.

Bairstow would bob up as a major figure later in Cummins' career of course, but at this stage, his wicket was simply confirmation of Australia's march to victory in Birmingham, sealed by another Cummins' wicket not long after.

"I knew going into the Test I needed seven wickets to reach 100, so an outside chance of it happening that Test match," said Cummins.

"So that was the 100th, but it also meant they were six (wickets) down, we were into their tail.

"It was such a great day. I remember turning up and we were probably just favorites that day five, but the way we started off, Nathan Lyon bowled beautifully.

"To be part of that day … I felt a real sense of satisfaction.

"From where we started off in that Test match to end up winning the Test match and go up 1-0 up in the series, I just remember being on a complete high."

Wicket No.150

Virat Kohli c Green b Cummins

 

(Adelaide 2020)

Another come-from-behind win for Australia was the scene for Cummins' next milestone moment, this time it was the biggest scalp in world cricket.

A 53-run first-innings deficit in the 2020-21 series opener at Adelaide Oval left Australia needing a massive effort from their bowlers to keep them in the match.

"I remember we turned up to the ground and we were well behind the game," said Cummins.

"I thought if we bowled out of our skin here, you never know, we might give ourselves a chance in a day's time to chase down a big total."

The home side's quicks, led by Cummins and Josh Hazlewood who took all the Indian wickets between them, responded in remarkable fashion.

Within 21.2 overs, Kohli's men had been knocked over for just 36 and Australia sealed victory before the end of day three.

Amid the carnage was another wide tempter from Cummins to Kohli, who nicked to Cameron Green in the gully to leave India 6-19.

"That day was ours to try and wrestle our way back into the game, and within an hour, we were out there batting chasing a small total," said Cummins.

"Just a great day to be part of. Josh Hazlewood bowled the house down. With each wicket, it was like no one wanted to get too excited. It was like if we celebrated too hard it was going to stop.

"When we walked off with that last wicket, it was like, 'Wow, did that really happen'."

It did – although India had the last laugh on their tour Down Under as they pulled off an all-time comeback to beat Australia on their own turf.

Wicket No.200

Kraigg Brathwaite b Cummins

 

(Perth 2022)

A classic Pat Cummins delivery saw him become the second fastest Australian quick to the 200-wicket mark, bettered only by his long-time mentor Dennis Lillee.

Cummins got there in 44 Tests; Lillee had done it in 38. But by the time the younger man got there, he was doing something Lillee had never done – captaining Australia.

It was a new phase of Cummins' career, yet he juggled the new demands with aplomb. His bowling did not suffer; in fact, it has gone to another level since taking on the leadership.

He entered his second summer in charge of the Test side on 199 wickets and while West Indies openers put up a fight to begin the Perth Test, Kraigg Brathwaite's exit to a spectacular delivery put Australia on the path to victory.

This ball was vintage Cummins, nipping off the seam, sneaking past the right-hander's outside edge, and smashing into the top part of the off stump.

It was not dissimilar to the famous ball he clean ripped Joe Root with during the 2019 Ashes.

Only this time it was to a batter who had been at the crease for more than four hours and was operating in more batter-friendly conditions.

Few in the world could have produced what Cummins did with that ball.

Wicket No.250

Mohammad Rizwan c Carey b Cummins

 

(Melbourne 2023)

By the time his 250th Test wicket arrived, Cummins had turned 30 and was well established as Australia's captain.

His biggest achievement in the role to date had come in Pakistan a year earlier when he masterminded a gritty series win there. But his personal milestone moment against them came on home soil as Australia surged to a 3-0 victory.

At the MCG, Cummins pocketed the Jonny Mullagh Medal for taking five-wicket hauls in each innings of the Test with Mohammad Rizwan's contentious second-innings exit handing him No.250.

A short ball that appeared to graze the wrist band on Rizwan's glove was given out despite the protests of the batter, whose coach later bemoaned umpiring mistakes costing them the match.

More pertinently for Cummins, it came amid what he viewed as a career spell.

"That's the best I've felt like I bowled for a little while," he said after the Test.

"The rhythm felt really good, I felt like I had good pace, I knew where my wrist was and I could control the seam, good bouncers. I felt really happy with how I was bowling even if I wasn't taking wickets."

And reaching the 250-wicket mark was just another sign of how far he had come.

"Achievements in Test cricket, the things that are most satisfying, is the longevity it takes to hit a few of those milestones, especially after missing a few years when I was a bit younger. It's always a nice little reminder."

Wicket No.300

Kagiso Rabada c Webster b Cummins

 

(Lord's 2025)

While Cummins 300th wicket won't go down as particularly remarkable, the context of his dismissal of Kagiso Rabada caught on square leg fence undoubtedly will.

Amid a brilliant spell that yielded 4-4 after lunch on day two of the 2025 World Test Championship final, Cummins swung the biennial Test decider back in Australia's favour in their quest for back-to-back titles.

After ripping through the Proteas middle- to lower-order at Lord's, the Aussie captain's dismissal of Rabada ended South Africa's innings on 138 to give his side a 74-run lead.

After roughing up Rabada with a well-aimed short ball, Cummins became the eighth Australian to notch 300 Test wickets as the Proteas paceman decided to go down swinging and picked out Beau Webster at deep square leg.

His final figures of 6-28 from 18.1 overs gave Cummins set a new benchmark for the best innings bowling performance by a captain at Lord's at the Home of Cricket.

"I've got some family here which is always nice," Cummins told Shaun Pollock on the broadcast during the innings break.

"More importantly, at lunch they were batting pretty well so pretty happy to have a first-innings lead.

"(300 wickets) is way more than I could have asked for.

"For any fast bowler, 300 is a big number, it means you had to battle a few injuries and niggles, got through it and played well in different conditions, so pretty happy."

At 13,725 deliveries bowled, Cummins was the quickest Australian and fifth-fastest bowler in Test history to reach the 300 milestone behind Rabada (11,817), Waqar Younis (12,602), Dale Steyn (12,605) and Allan Donald (13,672).

"When you first start playing, 50 wickets seems big," Cummins previously said.

"I think if 'Starcy' (Mitchell Starc) and Joshy (Hazlewood) and I, as fast bowlers who have played together all reach 300 wickets, that would be something really cool to look at.

"I think 300 is a pretty cool thing to tick off as a fast bowler."

World Test Championship Final

June 11-15: South Africa v Australia, Lord's

Broadcast exclusively on Prime Video in Australia. Sign up here for a 30-day free trial

Australia XI: Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Beau Webster, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood

South Africa XI: Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton, Wiaan Mulder, Temba Bavuma (c), Tristan Stubbs, David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi