Pat's back with another Bullring blitz

Before a ball was bowled on the Qantas Tour of South Africa, the week leading up to the fourth and final Test in Johannesburg was pencilled in for reflections and feature stories about Pat Cummins’ return to the scene where he made his dramatic Test debut in 2011.

As an 18-year-old kid, Cummins delivered a player-of-the-match performance at The Wanderers against the Proteas, first by taking 6-79 in the second innings then, playing with maturity beyond his teenage years, he calmly hit the winning runs as Australia won a thriller by two wickets.

It took five-and-a-half years for Cummins to return to the Test arena, when he was a shock call-up as Mitchell Starc’s replacement for the final two Tests of the four-match series against India in the subcontinent. 

In Ranchi and then Dharamsala, the then 23-year-old bowled with pace, accuracy, bounce and venom as if he hadn’t missed a match since that famous Test debut.

But as has been well documented, we know that wasn’t the case, as Cummins suffered injury setback after injury setback, teasing a full-time return almost annually only for his young body to break under the immense pressure of express fast bowling. 

Touch wood, those days are long gone and he now has a strong, durable body of work as evidence the days of lengthy stints on the sidelines are a distant memory.

Until he returned to the ground where he made an unforgettable mark as a teenager.

Like the 64 matches between his first and second Tests, those feature articles that were meant to flood newspapers and the bottomless pit that is the internet never came.

Instead, what has been written and reported about has had little to do with Cummins but the fallout of the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal that sent Australian cricket to rock bottom and three banned players on separate flights back home.

So when the cricket returned, albeit under the morose malaise of the past week’s revelations, punishments and tears, there was perhaps no better sight to Australian cricket fans, who are desperate for something positive to believe in, than Cummins running in full tilt, injury free and taking wickets.

Cummins finished with 5-83 from 28.5 overs, including the wickets of century-maker Aiden Markram, veteran No.3 Hashim Amla and two golden ducks – Faf du Plessis and Morne Morkel. Throw in Keshav Maharaj to complete the quintet. 

For a player of such skill it’s astonishing that his 5-83 is just his second first-class five-wicker haul, after the 6-79 on Test debut, but his time in the injury ward has limited him to just 24 first-class matches in seven years.

Now he has played 13 Tests in a row with a few limited-overs internationals mixed in, and his 62 wickets in the Baggy Green are more than champion bowlers Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Shane Warne had at the same stage of their prolific careers.

The 24-year-old has been the pick of the visiting quicks this series with 18 scalps, which has backed up his 23 wickets in the Magellan Ashes as Australia’s leading wicket-taker in the four-nil series win over England.

Australia assistant coach David Saker, speaking after play on Saturday, said Cummins is now trusting his body just as much as his outrageous ability.

"The series has been really pleasing,” Saker said. 

“It's so good to see him get five wickets today. He's probably deserved that in many Tests this series. 

“He's bowled some spells this series that are as good as any bowler has bowled for Australia before. 

“He's backed it up now for probably over 12 months. He's now trusting his body, which is great for him. 

“There (were) times when he would have found that playing a game of cricket was going to be a worry because he thought he was going to break down but now he's got through some really good overs and bowling at good pace and good control. 

“It's been really pleasing he's kept through the summer and this series, it's been outstanding."

Cummins has won fans around the world for his performances on the field, none more so than former Proteas captain Graeme Smith.

Smith was South Africa’s skipper in Cummins’ Test debut and says he’s impressed by how the paceman's game has developed despite his time out through injury.

“He’s been outstanding,” Smith told cricket.com.au. “I thoroughly enjoyed watching him throughout the series. 

“I got to play against him on debut, the young man, you could see he had huge potential. 

“The injuries played their part but to see him string a lot of Test matches together and in particular this one, to see him up close again, he gives 100 per cent. 

“He’s always in the game, you always think something is going to happen when he’s got ball in hand. 

“He looks like a seasoned campaigner. Every time he gets the ball it looks like he knows what he wants to do. 

“He’s got a wonderful future ahead and it’s wonderful for our international game to have someone of his ability.”

Now that Cummins has returned to his old stomping ground, what are his memories of that match in 2011?

“Remember it really clearly,” Cummins told cricket.com.au at the start of the tour.

“It feels not too long ago but at the same time it’s weird, it almost feels like I was a different person. 

“A lot of the memories, there’s Ricky Ponting, there’s Mike Hussey, guys that were heroes growing up and played one game with. 

“Now I haven’t played with them for a while, it’s like ‘Did I really play with them?’.”

Qantas tour of South Africa

South Africa squad: Faf du Plessis (c), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Theunis de Bruyn, Dean Elgar, Heinrich Klaasen, Quinton de Kock, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Duanne Olivier, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada, AB de Villiers.

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c), Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Jon Holland, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Matt Renshaw, Jhye Richardson, Chadd Sayers, Mitchell Starc.

Warm-up match: Australia beat South Africa A by five wickets. Report, highlights

First Test Australia won by 118 runs. Scorecard

Second Test South Africa won by six wickets. Scorecard

Third Test South Africa won by 322 runs. Scorecard

Fourth Test Wanderers, Johannesburg, March 30-April 3. Live coverage