During the recently held Ashes series in England, speedster Pat Cummins claimed 29 wickets from 5 Tests to help Australia retain the urn on English soil for the first time since 2001.
Cummins, who is currently the No. 1 bowler by some distance in the ICC Test rankings, recently spoke to cricket.com.au and admitted that he's never been more tired before a Test match than he was in the lead-up to the Ashes series finale at The Oval.
"It was a really tense series, so it felt like every day's play was quite exhausting," Cummins said. "I felt like I needed a break.
"Those last two weeks I bowled close to 100 overs. That was pretty taxing. But I’ve had a good week off, so feeling pretty good now."
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After impressing one and all in red-ball cricket, Cummins is now keen to prove his worth in the shortest format of the game as well.
Australia will host the next year’s T20 World Cup – the only trophy missing from their highly esteemed cabinet. And if Cummins finds his feet in T20Is, it will only bolster Australia’s chances to win the showpiece tournament.
"The last year has been a real one-day focus leading into the (50-over) World Cup. I think we'll see a shift," said Cummins.
"We've got 20-odd games before that T20 World Cup. Personally I want to be in that World Cup squad, so I want to play as many of those games as possible.
"There’s a lot I want to work on in T20 cricket, so it's good there's more opportunity now to concentrate on that with six games in a row (to start the summer). I don't feel like I've had that in a long time."
Cummins boasts a decent T20I record, taking 25 wickets at 21 in 20 games. Yet the paceman is eager to refamiliarise himself with the skills required for the shortest format.
"I've been bowling heaps so I feel like my rhythm is there, it's just about trying to work on yorkers, slower balls and different field placements I haven’t tried since the (ODI) World Cup," explained Cummins.
"Hopefully it doesn't take too long to work on that. Then it's back into red ball (cricket) after that.
"We've got six T20s all in a row, so I feel like you can put more attention into that rather than a quick in-and-out series."
