To see Cummins excelling with both bat and ball, coming into his prime at the age of 25, is to ponder the strengths and weaknesses in Australia’s development of its elite cricketers. During the series of back injuries that halted Cummins’ international career after his debut at the age of 18, Cricket Australia and Cricket NSW supported him until he could restart his journey at 24. The game’s professional infrastructure helped hold body and soul together and provided him with light at the end of what must have seemed an endless tunnel. In a way, this was the fruit of cricket’s professionalisation. In earlier eras, a young man with Cummins’s history of injuries might have been lost to the game. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video On the other hand – or from the other end of the telescope – it appears that his absence from international cricket during his formative years might be the best thing that could have happened to him, the luckiest of accidents. He developed his batting, out of the spotlight, as a top-order player with the Penrith club in Sydney. He developed what is now a manifest maturity of character during his years out of the spotlight. It might now appear that the essential ingredient in Cummins’ career was not to be an international cricketer in his early 20s. There are few precedents for this in this era of one-size-fits-all professional cricket. All-round excellence: Cummins sets off for a run during his unbeaten knock of 61 on day four. Credit:AP

One qualified example might be Mitchell Johnson, who made a blistering debut for Australiain 2008-09 before four years of fitful progress, and sometimes regress. By 2013, Johnson’s career appeared over, or at least stagnant. He spent that winter away from international cricket, reassessing his future, consulting with Lillee in Perth. In horse-racing terms, Johnson was taking a spell. Famously, he emerged to become the world’s most destructive fast bowler – but only for two series, against England and South Africa, before the grind of constant cricket again set in and sucked him back towards the tideline of average. Loading Had Johnson been able to follow what might be called a natural cycle of off-season and on-season rejuvenation, his effectiveness and his career would certainly have stretched out. But there was no room for such individualised treatment. Once fit, Johnson was flogged until, at the end of 2015, he dropped. Among Cummins’ teammates, we are seeing the failed evolution of diverse careers within a system that cannot help demanding conformity. In the same 2011-12 summer Cummins made his Test debut, so did James Pattinson and Mitchell Starc. Josh Hazlewood soon followed.