He scored 118 in one innings as an 11-year-old, quite the achievement at that age, and just seven years later he had gone from playing at Glenbrook’s Knapsack Oval to a Test debut. 

His father Peter and brother Tim both played for Glenbrook, which is about a 15-minute drive from Mount Riverview, a small town on the fringes of the Blue Mountains where Cummins grew up. Cummins, a little like Sam Curran, was driven by being the youngest brother, the one who had to stand up for himself in competitive backyard cricket matches.

The rough and tumble of family life with five children in the house led to the childhood accident that lives with Cummins now. Aged four, the top of the middle finger of his right hand was severed when it was trapped in a door. “I still get my sister in tears… she slammed the door on it,” he once told the Cricket Australia website.

There are no photographs from his Glenbrook time, or if there are they are in a box gathering dust in someone’s attic. “Nobody would have thought of taking them in those days,” says Batty. It was a time before camera phones and digital photographs charted a child’s every move. 

But there are plenty of pictures of Cummins at Penrith, just down the road from Mount Riverview. Glenbrook is a feeder club into Penrith, the local grade cricket side, which is where Cummins soon became recognised as a prodigy heading for the top. 

When you walk into the NA Hunter Pavilion at Penrith’s Howell Oval, almost the first sight is a huge framed photograph of Cummins, which also contains a signed shirt from his Test debut. On the opposite wall is a framed jumper and photograph of Trevor Bayliss in his 80s pomp; the former England coach is a legendary Penrith figure, still often seen at the ground watching his son play for the first-grade side. 

Speak to anyone at Glenbrook or Penrith about Cummins and they all recall a humble, quiet boy who was seriously skilful for his age. The personality attributes remain and are why Cricket Australia, ever aware of its image, has risked appointing its first fast since 1956 to lead the Test side. 

“It was 12-13 years ago that we first saw Pat. I just remember this skinny, rangy kid with a mop of hair who could bowl fast and also bat quite well,” says Paul Goldsmith, the Penrith president. “What is a little-known fact is that the year he played in our Green Shield team (junior cricket) he was captain and that was his first captaincy experience. He was the leading run-scorer and we could see at that age he was going to be a pretty good bowler, but he was a rounded cricketer as well. He was an athlete at a young age, albeit just skin and bones.”

Within three seasons, aged 17, he was playing first grade and had already been picked up by New South Wales. After one year of grade cricket and three Sheffield Shield games for New South Wales, he was making his Test debut.

“I have seen players with ability get ahead of themselves but Pat was not like that. He was quiet, humble, a good listener and just a very nice person to be part of a group,” says Goldsmith.

Cummins still occasionally turns out for Penrith when coming back from injury; the bond between grade cricket and the Test team still remains strong in Australia. “Normally there is a man and a dog watching grade cricket but when Pat comes back it always helps shift a few more burgers and beers,” says Goldsmith.

In 2017, he starred as Penrith won their first title for 16 years, Cummins bowling the last over in a limited-overs final and successfully defending five runs to win. There is a photograph of him jumping in the air celebrating with the same passion as if he had just knocked over Joe Root. “It is a good indication of how he views club cricket,” says Goldsmith. “I remember before the game he said he was quite nervous because of the expectation that came with it. It meant a lot to him. He gives so much to the team. He comes back, is humble and expects to be treated like a normal club cricketer – and he is, and he treats his team-mates like that, too. He is a natural leader.”

It was spotted all those years ago in the Glenbrook end-of-year report. “Patrick was always encouraging others,” it said – the first hint of the skills needed to make him Australia’s 46th Test captain.