Cricket Australia vs South Africa, Test series 2026: Pat Cummins debut match in 2011 and injury history, feature

South Africa and Australian Test debutants have been a match made in heaven in the 21st century.

In a famous series in early 2014, forgotten top order batter Alex Doolan made a measured 89 to combine with David Warner and bat the Proteas out of the first Test.

Five years earlier, 29-year old Marcus North joined an exclusive club with a century in his first innings at the level, in a match where Phillip Hughes and Ben Hilfenhaus also earned their baggy green caps.

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20 years ago, with Glenn McGrath staying back in Australia to look after wife Jane amid her battle with breast cancer, Stuart Clark produced a bowling display in his likeness with nine wickets, an immaculate line and length, and Player of the Match honours.

Sandwiched in between those tours, in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it two-match series in 2011 that would have been forgotten within weeks if not for the extraordinary cricket played, is the ultimate Australian Test debut.

A six-wicket second innings haul to wrestle the Proteas back from the brink of an unassailable lead in Johannesburg, then nervelessly hitting the winning runs in a wafer-thin chase.

Both would foreshadow the champion Pat Cummins was to become.

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And in five memorable days, the teenage sensation showed enough that not even missing the next five years’ worth of Tests through injury could make selectors forget.

“It was a fantastic performance,” Australian legend Allan Border, who watched the future Test captain’s stunning first act from the Wanderers commentary box, told foxsports.com.au this week.

“He really ruffled some feathers that day and I remember Jacques Kallis, in particular, looking very uncomfortable.

“I just thought, ‘Geez. We have something special here.’

“And then we butchered him.”

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‘RIDICULOUS’: BRUTAL SHIELD FINAL STAT SPARKS EARLY CONCERN

At 18 years old, Cummins was Australia’s second-youngest ever Test cricketer – only Ian Craig, 17 years and 239 days old upon receiving his baggy green, had represented his country in the longest format at a more tender age.

Barely eight months on from making his first-class debut for NSW, at a time when he was unable to legally vote or drink, the rise had been staggering.

Cummins’ third appearance for the Blues was the 2010/11 Sheffield Shield final, showing the esteem in which his state already held him.

In an era where Shield table-toppers needed to be beaten in the decider to have the title taken off them, Tasmania duly offered up a docile wicket – and steely resistance with the bat.

In reply to NSW’s brisk 440, helped along by 138 from Hughes for his second Shield final ton, the Tigers faced 178 overs in compiling 453, with Ed Cowan grinding the Blues’ bowling attack into the dust over more than seven hours.

With no all-rounder in the team, the workload on the team’s four frontline quicks was immense: and at 17, Cummins’ was simply staggering.

He bowled 48 overs for the innings, behind only the more experienced – and slower – Trent Copeland (56.2), bowling with pace and venom throughout.

Still hitting speeds above 140 kilometres an hour after a full day of bowling, Cummins took 3/118 and could have had more, with Cowan and George Bailey both regularly troubled by the accuracy of his bouncer.

He’d then back up for 17 more overs on the final day as the Blues set the Tigers 203 for victory, going wicketless but producing a stellar direct hit run out from mid-on to at last dismiss Bailey and give his team a sniff.

Nevertheless, the sheer workload had taken its toll: Cummins was crippled by back pain immediately afterwards, later confirmed to be a stress fracture, and seldom bowled for the next few months.

“It was a ridiculous number of overs he bowled and that, of course, is when the stress fractures and everything else started to appear,” Border recalled to foxsports.com.au this week.

Despite just nine wickets at an average of 46 in only three first-class games to that point, he emerged from that ordeal with reputation enhanced.

And with a maiden Cricket Australia contract signed in June 2011, Cummins seemed destined for greatness, and fast.

“We’re really all of the view that he’s a potential champion for Australia and we’re going to encourage that and look after him,” chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said.

He wouldn’t don the baggy blue again for six more years.

‘LOOKED LIKE A NATURAL’: FIRST TEST ACT HINTS AT ELITE TALENT

Cummins’ first glimpse at international duty came in South Africa, in a pre-Test series of limited overs games that served as a chance to stake his claim.

Ten wickets across five matches earned him his ticket into the Test squad, one of five fast bowlers alongside Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle and NSW teammate Copeland.

He bore witness to one of Australia’s greatest ever humiliations: the disastrous 47 all out in Cape Town that turned a 188-run first innings lead into a galling eight-wicket defeat.

With a hip injury flaring up, Harris was ruled out of the second Test in Johannesburg.

Australia’s record of having never lost a series in South Africa since their readmission to the world sporting scene in 1991 was under serious threat.

Fatefully, selectors opted against the steady hand of Copeland, who had impressed on debut in the tough climes of Sri Lanka on a mid-year tour.

The new kid on the block had his chance: with some sage advice from the great Ricky Ponting, Cummins was an Australian Test cricketer.

His first innings figures at the Wanderers read 1/38 from 15 overs: tight, but not exceptional.

But sometimes numbers lie.

Cranking up to above 140 km/h just three balls into his spell, having been given a share of the new ball by captain Michael Clarke, he had both openers in Graeme Smith and Jacques Rudolph nervously prodding outside off stump.

An inside edge saw the latter narrowly survive chopping on in Cummins’ second over, while his maiden Test wicket of Proteas great Hashim Amla – an outswinger catching the edge for a simple Ponting catch at second slip – was one to tell the grandkids about even if it wasn’t to be followed by hundreds more.

Throw in an outstanding catch running back with the flight from mid-on, and the debutant was flying.

“It is difficult to judge Cummins on one day, but he was full of raw pace and enthusiasm,” journalist Brydon Coverdale wrote for ESPNcricinfo, comparing the teen’s performance on debut to a badly out of touch Johnson.

“Cummins didn’t appear nervous. On the contrary, he looked like a natural at Test level.”

Used in five- or six-over spells by Clarke to keep him fresh, the newcomer had proved he belonged.

No one, though, could have predicted what was to come next.

‘ABSOLUTELY MAGNIFICENT’: DEBUT MASTERCLASS UNFOLDS

If Cummins’ first two days of Test cricket showed his potential, his third was when things really started to take off.

The Proteas ended the day in a commanding position at 3/229, with a lead surging towards 300 and Amla and AB de Villiers both approaching centuries.

With little else to get excited about, the 18-year old was the centre of attention, having taken two of the wickets to fall.

They were handy scalps, too – Rudolph skied a back-of-a-length riser, while Jacques Kallis was brilliantly outthought after Cummins followed a series of sharp bouncers with a length ball in the channel outside off that the great all-rounder edged to Clarke at slip.

“To be able to do that to Jacques Kallis shows a serious amount of talent,” teammate Shane Watson said at stumps.

“For an 18-year-old to show that much control, he just seems like he knows the right ball to bowl at the right time.”

Both Amla and de Villiers had been lucky to survive, too, with the former only spared an LBW by the on-field call of not out, and the latter coming within inches of offering a return catch.

“Over the first three days in Johannesburg, Pat Cummins has been Australia’s best bowler,” Coverdale wrote for ESPNcricinfo.

“In all fairness, he hasn’t had much competition.

“Few sights in cricket rouse the senses like that of a quick bowler roughing up a batsman, all the more so when the batsman is of the quality of Kallis, who on the first day brought up his 12,000th Test run.”

The next day was even better.

A full outswinger had de Villiers caught at slip in the early overs to end a 147-run stand and bring Australia back into the game.

Then, with the Proteas’ tail wagging, he returned in brutal fashion with a rearing snorter first ball of a spell that Vernon Philander could only glove behind to Brad Haddin.

One ball later, a searing yorker splattered Morne Morkel’s stumps for Cummins’ fifth – at the time the fifth-youngest ever to achieve the feat in a Test, and still the youngest Australian by more than 15 months.

“Brilliant stuff from Patrick Cummins! This is sensational,” South African commentary doyen Mike Haysman gushed.

“Absolutely magnificent stuff from the teenager.”

The method of dismissal hadn’t gone unnoticed, either.

“Not only is he young and fast, he’s a thinking man’s fast bowler,” former Proteas international HD Ackerman said on commentary.

“Morkel would have thought that he was going to get a vicious bumper – instead, it’s a yorker.

“He’s richly deserved the figures he has.”

The hat-trick ball was right on the money, too: a 144.5km/h yorker that No. 11 Imran Tahir somehow dug out.

Undeterred, Cummins would have Dale Steyn edging behind to complete a six-wicket haul not long after, with the entire Australian XI congregating to congratulate the teen sensation.

Even umpire Billy Bowden was keen to shake his hand.

‘INCREDIBLE’: EPIC HEIST SEALS ‘SUPERB’ AUSSIE WIN

Cummins’ debut, as exceptional as it was, might not be remembered so fondly had it not been for its final act.

Chasing a Johannesburg record 310 for victory – and a 1-1 shared series – the 18-year old joined Mitchell Johnson at the crease with Australia 8/292, having lost two quick wickets to threaten heartbreak after a stirring run chase.

The crowd at the Wanderers was in full voice, a daunting assignment for the most hardened Test cricketer, let alone a teenage No. 10 facing a pace brigade of Steyn, Philander and Morkel.

With a packed slips cordon eagerly awaiting a nervous prod, Cummins drove fearlessly at his second ball, somehow pushing Steyn off a leading edge out to the cover boundary for three.

Several plays and misses would have had the Australians’ hearts racing as they watched from the players’ viewing area.

As would have an error by Steyn when Cummins chipped a return catch back at him, only for it to burst through his hands so hard it went all the way to the straight boundary for four.

Another terrifying near-miss would soon ensue: spinner Tahir’s huge LBW shout after the tailender missed a googly was sent straight upstairs, to a Decision Review System still in its infancy.

The ball would have gone on to cannon into the stumps … but Cummins’ lunge forward had taken him just outside the line enough to earn an ‘umpire’s call’ verdict and spare him.

One ball later, a supremely brave leave saw the ball fizz just past off stump.

But Cummins’ patience paid off: Tahir finally dropped short, and was gleefully dispatched through mid-wicket for four to complete a famous, thrilling Australian two-wicket win.

“How about that?” commentator Pommie Mbangwa cried as Cummins and Johnson embraced mid-pitch.

“Superb stuff – just fantastic. They finally get over the line.”

“Just a second – I’m picking myself up off the floor!” Border, on commentary duty, laughed.

“What an absolute brilliant game of cricket.”

Cummins’ rise to stardom was complete … though his newcomer status was about to be humorously, if accidentally, confirmed by the Australian legend.

“What about Pat Cummings?” Border said.

“What a game for him on debut – hits the winning runs in a Test match. Quite incredible.”

And far from being caught up in the excitement of his debut heroics, Cummins remained level-headed enough to remember to grab a souvenir stump on his way off the field.

He’d soon be crowned Player of the Match.

‘FINEST SINCE MCGRATH’ … BUT MAJOR FEARS REALISED

In Cape Town and Australia alike, the reaction was immediate – and gushing.

None had higher praise than legendary ABC caller Jim Maxwell, for many the voice of the game in Australia alongside the late Richie Benaud.

“He is the finest strike bowler Australia has had since (Glenn) McGrath and if he stays fit, his record could be equally imposing,” Maxwell wrote.

“How many of Australia’s star players have done as well as Cummins in their first match? Not (Don) Bradman, nor (Shane) Warne, nor McGrath.

“Maybe (Dennis) Lillee with five wickets, but none of the past champions were as young or as immediately exploding with Cummins’s talent.”

Watching on in Australia, even Lillee, arguably the country’s greatest ever fast bowler, was taken aback.

“When I first saw some highlights of him in South Africa … there are only half a dozen like this in the world who made me go ‘Wow’ when I’ve seen them bowl,” Lillee recounted, years later, to cricket.com.au.

New Australian coach Mickey Arthur, meanwhile, made note of an “uncanny” similarity to the fearsome Steyn, who he had previously coached while at the Proteas – “except Pat Cummins is a lot younger, which makes it all the more exciting”.

But amid the excitement were warnings – especially after Cummins revealed his 44-over workload, including 29 in the second innings alone, revealed he had sustained a bone stress injury in his heel that left him needing painkilling injections to get through the match.

“Cummins is an imposing size for an 18-year-old and looks indestructible, but so did Shaun Tait,” veteran journalist Greg Baum wrote in The Age.

Former Australian fast bowler Geoff Lawson, who had advised against handing Cummins a debut at all in South Africa, was even more scathing.

“He just hasn’t played enough cricket at that age, and guess what, he’s got into a Test match … bowled superbly but we’ve found out that his body’s not ready to go,” Lawson told the ABC.

Even Clarke himself tempered his praise with a word of caution, for both Cummins and Australian selectors.

“We’ve got to make sure we manage him the right way now and look after him, because he’s got the potential to be one of the greats,” Clarke said post-match in Johannesburg.

“He’s in the Twenty20 team, he’s in the one-day team and now he’s in the Test team, so I think it’d be very silly for him to play all three forms, every single game.

“I don’t think his body’s ready for it.”

Clarke had raised eyebrows midway through the match by forcing Cummins off the field for a check on his injured heel just one over into a new-ball spell.

It proved a prescient warning: the next five years saw Cummins struck down time and again by injury to leave his stunning debut a distant memory.

As Johnson stepped away from the game, returned and destroyed England in 2013/14, as future partners in crime Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc emerged, the one-time teen sensation was barely able to get on the park.

He’d be a semi-regular selection in limited-overs internationals, but first-class cricket was all but out of the question.

In early 2012, his heel injury flared up again, before a side strain and back stress fracture wiped out the rest of his year.

He’d have two more back stress fractures in the next three years, as well as suffering a side strain during the 2015 World Cup as part of Australia’s squad, which cost him his spot for the team’s win in the final over New Zealand.

All up, he missed 64 Tests in the 1,964 days between his Johannesburg debut and his encore act in Ranchi in March 2017.

To put that into perspective, that’s more Tests than Richie Benaud, Graham McKenzie, Shane Watson or Merv Hughes played in their careers.

Remarkably, it came just days after making a six-year Sheffield Shield return, picking up eight wickets and being almost instantly put on the plane to India to replace an injured Starc for the third Test of a closely fought series.

History says his debut came too early, heroics and all: by the time of his recall, the 23-year old Cummins was at last capable of withstanding the rigours of Test cricket.

“He has been a fantastic performer for Australia, but geez, he has not played as many games as he would have liked for the time he has been around,” Border told foxsports.com.au.

“To see him miss four or five years on the sideline initially after that debut … is quite incredible.”

Cummins has since blossomed into one of Australia’s greatest ever fast bowlers, with his 322 wickets at 21.91 putting him right alongside McGrath and Lillee in any all-time XI discussions.

That lengthy absence meant, for years after his Wanderers wonder, the teen sensation’s debut became almost mythical in Australian cricket.

But as he has proven since his triumphant return, captain Cummins was worth the wait.