Pat Cummins fondly recalls mother’s inspiring words: Go and take on the world

Pat Cummins recalled the times when his mother motivated him to achieve ‘wonderful things’ and inspire the world. Back in November 2011, Cummins made his international debut on the tour of South Africa and made an impressive right away in the Johannesburg Test where he picked up 6 wickets in the second innings, although the Aussies lost the match.

Since then, Cummins stayed out of the game due to several injury concerns. However, he made a strong comeback and is currently going through a purple patch in his career. Cummins earlier replaced Tim Paine as skipper in Tests and Aaron Finch in ODIs and T20Is.

Last year, Cummins helped Australia retain the Ashes and guided them to glory in the World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-23 and ODI World Cup. Cummins said how his mother believed in him to scale the heights for Australia and other teams.

“My mother told me that ‘Pat, go and take on the world. Someone’s going to go and do these wonderful things, it might as well be you,” Cummins said in Season 3 of the documentary ‘The Test’.

‘Hardest time of my life’

Last year, Cummins’ mother died of cancer. He was in India for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but flew back home for personal reasons. After Cummins departed, Steve Smith took charge of the national team. The Australian captain called it “the hardest time of my life”.

“I knew when I was getting on that plane that I was going to have to come back in a couple of weeks pretty much. Flying away… That’s the hardest time of my life, easily,” Cummins said in March on the Imperfects podcast.

“I probably felt it in the 12 months leading in. Any time I flew away I was like, ‘Time’s finite here, I’m making a deliberate choice to go and play somewhere rather than spend it at home’,” he said.

Cummins is currently in India for IPL 2024 where he has led SRH to the final to be held on Sunday, May 26 against KKR at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.