Australia captain Pat Cummins reveals struggle due to burnout, wants to play until 35

Australia’s Pat Cummins. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Australia captain Pat Cummins admitted that he felt “burnt out” a few years ago because of playing non-stop cricket but he’s now looking at competing at the top level for at least another five years.

Cummins returned home from Australia’s tour of India earlier this year to be at the side of his mother, who passed away in March after a prolonged illness.

After making his Australia debut during the tour of South Africa in 2011, Cummins had to spend as many as six years on the sidelines recovering from injuries and it was only after 2017 that he became a regular member of the national side.

“Cricket’s basically 12 months of the year, there’s always a cricket game going on somewhere, and I played non-stop for a year or two,” the 30-year-old Cummins told ‘WeAre8’s: Get Real with Rio’ as reported by Australian Associated Press.

“This is about four or five years ago, [when] I kind of just came back from injuries. And I was just spent, like burnout and I just remember thinking ‘geez I’m 25 here but I want to do this until I’m 35’ I’ve got to find a way to balance all these different things,” he said in a conversation with former England football player Rio Ferdinand.

Cummins said his family was still trying to come to terms with the loss of his mother.

“It’s still pretty raw at the moment but the last few months been luckily enough to spend loads of time with mum.”

“I think it hits home the kind of person you want to be, the kind of father you want to be. So from that side, it’s been quite good. Lots of memories. But in terms of the grief I guess we’ll keep working through that,” the right-arm fast bowler added.

Having missed this year’s Indian Premier League as well, Cummins began training a few days ago in Australia with a big season of Test cricket coming up.

Australia will face world No. 1 India in the final of the World Test Championships at The Oval in London from June 7-11. His team’s focus will immediately shift to the all-important Ashes series starting on June 16 at Edgbaston.

Apart from playing cricket for Australia, Cummins has also been involved in Cricket for Climate, a foundation that he set up to help reduce the sport’s carbon footprint.

“We [Cricket for Climate] would love to go overseas, India, England, there’s so much scope for making a change in those places.

“I try to do my little bit to normalise the conversation and make a bit of difference to make his [son Albie] future a bit better. I’d love to sit back in 10-20 years and just show the huge impact we’ve made,” he said.