Pat on pace to rip into England

AUSSIE Test quick Pat Cummins has revealed he lost 6.5kg during one day of his last Test in Chittagong.

But the once injury prone speedster said surviving that ordeal only gave him more confidence he was ready for the rigours of his first five Test series on home soil.

Cummins is yet to play more than two Tests in a row since his debut as a 19-year-old in South Africa in 2011 but will form a key plank of the Aussie attack when the Ashes begin in Brisbane on Thursday.

Now 24, Cummins made his Test return in India, then went to Bangladesh and played the final match in Chittagong as the lone fast bowler. He bowled 33 overs in conditions which also levelled batsman Peter Handscomb and forced him in to use a drip after batting on day two.

Australia fielded for the entire first day and Cummins said the conditions were the biggest Test of his rejuvenated body so far, and he passed.

“All the boys who played that Test said it was the hardest they’d ever experienced in terms of the brutal heat and humidity. Even the Bangladeshis struggled,” Cummins wrote for the Players Voice website.

Cummins said even umpire Ian Gould wanted him to stop bowling, but he got through it, and is convinced he has what it takes to survive, and thrive, through five Ashes Tests.

“When I look back on it all, it makes me happy,” Cummins said. “That might sound like a strange thing to say – it certainly wasn’t much fun at the time! – but I’m really satisfied I got through it all.

“I wasn’t on a restricted over count. My body didn’t pack it in. I just did my job.”