For Pat Cummins, it was a low-key return to where it all began.

A sportswriter's favourite shape is the circle. An oval can also work, depending on denomination.

It arcs away, then curves back around: The snake eating its own tail, a celestial orbit, the number eight laid on its side.

"I wish the West Texas highway was a Mobius strip," sings John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats.

"I could ride it out forever when I feel my heart break."

The emotional potency of the loop is undeniable: A return to one's beginnings is the underpinning of half the cinema and literature that humans have produced.

For Cummins, his time as an Australian Test cricketer began at the Wanderers, that famous sporting ground in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was 2011, and he was picked from obscurity at 18 years of age.

He bowled with the freedom of youth, at an age that has never heard of restraint. The ball singing through off a length.

Cummins had Hashim Amla caught at slip in the first innings, then in the second he galloped through Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, and Jacques Rudolph before mopping up the tail.

He had kept Australia in the game, if only just, with South Africa's lead out to 309. The hosts should still have won, but Australia scraped home by two wickets. Getting them there with the bat was Cummins, 13 not out.

Pat Cummins celebrates taking a wicket during his Test debut in Johannesburg in 2011. ( Reuters: Siphiwe Sibeko )

Six and a half years have passed since then. Five and a half of them Cummins spent managing a parade of injuries.

"He's had a pretty up and down career from there, hasn't he?" observed Australia first drop Usman Khawaja ahead of the first Test beginning in Durban on Thursday.

"Bowled like an absolute genius that first game. He's obviously done a lot of hard work, a lot of setbacks, and the last year and a half he's been bowling beautifully.

"You obviously need to be really resilient. His body's been holding up. He's great to have around the change room, really good bloke.

"It's just nice to see him out there and playing Test match cricket, which I'm sure is what he's always wanted."

Cummins enjoying injury-free run

That return to Test ranks was less than a year ago, when Cummins finally managed his second game in Ranchi, India.

From there, the previously spun-glass paceman has become carbon fibre (touch wood). He pushed through a power of work in India, led the line through a tour of Bangladesh, then played all five Ashes Tests in Australia.

Pat Cummins made only his second Test appearance in Ranchi last March six years after his debut. ( AP: Aijaz Rahi )

Then most recently, he returned to Johannesburg, preparing for another burst in African conditions. His visit to the Wanderers, though, was only for training. The tour match was in the suburb of Benoni (to which an Australian mind keeps adding a Hazlehurst).

"It's a little bit weird actually, especially being at the Wanderers the past couple of days. It feels so long ago that I was there, but I guess it was only a few Test matches ago for me," Cummins said in Johannesburg.

"My first memories were ones of fast wickets and the ball swinging around. So it's good to get out here and see that it's all pretty similar."

Cummins enjoyed the conditions as Australia won. He bowled with venom against South Africa A to pick up 4-32 in the first innings, then top-scored with 59 to avert the risk of an embarrassing loss. He looks primed for the contest and after some hard grind during the Ashes he cannot wait.

"There wasn't a heap of swing or sideways movement back in Australia," Cummins said.

"I felt like a lot of the time our biggest chance of wickets was trying to bowl bouncers and trying to get a false shot that way.

"Over here, looks like the ball's going to swing around a bit, and [during South Africa's] Test matches against India looked like there was a fair bit of nip when the seam was stood up.

"As a bowler, love seeing that, and to go with all that there's a bit of pace and bounce as well."

The real deal, as far as Johannesburg comebacks go, will be in early April, when this four-Test series finishes up. Recent history between these sides suggests that it could be a grandstand decider.

The only question mark for Cummins — one that will remain for the rest of his career — is whether his body will make the distance. If it does, he looks a fine chance to play the defining hand at the Wanderers for a second time.