Pat’s weight loss has him ready for Ashes
Aussie Test quick Pat Cummins has revealed he lost 6.5kg during one day in 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 sensation 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 that 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,” Cummins wrote for the Players Voice website.
“Even the Bangladeshis struggled.
“After the first over, it felt like I’d just completed a really, really hard fitness session.
“After the second over, it felt like I had done the hardest gym session of my life. After the third over, I just wanted to vomit.
“My mind was delirious. You’re trying to force yourself to think, ‘I’ve got to figure out a way to get the batsman out,’ but, really, you’re just wondering how you’re going to get through the next over without falling in a heap.
“There was one day when we spent all three sessions in the field.
“Drinking fluids made me feel sick.
“I was taking anti-nausea tablets to try and keep the water down. It didn’t work. I lost six-and-a-half kilos in a day.
“Sometimes, in between overs, I’d be at fine leg on all-fours vomiting. I didn’t have a stomach bug. The conditions were just that harsh. There’s no way to acclimatise to heat like that. You can’t cool down.”
Cummins said even umpire Ian Gould wanted him to stop bowling, but he got through it, and is now convinced he has what it takes to survive, and thrive, through five Ashes Tests.