NSW captain Moises Henriques will watch Pat Cummins' return to the Test arena with trepidation, but has backed the injury-prone quick to lead the Australian pace attack for the rest of the series against India.
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Cummins was rushed to India last week off the back of his first Shield game in almost six years after a stress fracture in Mitchell Starc's right foot that ruled the left-arm spearhead out of the last two Tests.
The third Test against India in Ranchi starts on Thursday and will be Cummins' second in the Baggy Green after he starred on debut against South Africa in November of 2011, before a series of stress fractures in his foot and back in subsequent years threatened to ruin his career.
He was man of the match last week in his Shield return, taking eight wickets in an outright win over South Australia that has the Blues poised to qualify for the final should they beat Western Australia in Perth this week.
"Pat's a very special bowler, skill wise and if you want someone to play cricket for Australia I think Pat Cummins is your man – whether he's ready physically on the back of one Shield game, that's a completely different kettle of fish," Henriques said.
"One Shield game earlier he got ruled out and apparently he wasn't ready to play Shield cricket for NSW. Now on the back of one Shield game he's ready to play a Test series in India.
"He's in good nick. He bowled beautifully for us out here and bowled almost 40 overs for the game, he was great first and second innings but it was his first Shield game back.
"Skill wise it's the right call but there's a number of different factors when it comes into selecting guys to play for Australia in those sorts of conditions."
Cummins was rested for the second last Shield game against Tasmania, which was played just three days after the final Twenty20 international against Sri Lanka.
The 23-year-old and Henriques played for Australia in that game, and while the Blues captain went on to captain his side against Tasmania, NSW medics opted to take a more cautionary path with Cummins.
Despite his injury history, Cummins will return to Test cricket off the back of his most productive summer in terms of output. He played Matador Cup, Big Bash, club cricket and second XI for NSW before his Shield return, along with 10 one-day internationals and three T20s for Australia.
But Henriques said bowling in the subcontinent was a much more bruising task than on home soil, particularly in the aggressive environment created in the first two Tests.
"Of course it is, when there's no grass on the wicket it always gets a little bit more sore," Henriques said.
"It's obviously a lot hotter, you've got to bend your back a lot harder to get any sort of bounce out of the wicket.
"He would've seen his good mates Starcy and Hazlewood come up with plans to bowl well over there and they've been doing well so that'll give Patty a lot of confidence, he's bowled a lot with those two.
"He'll just have to adjust his length that he may have to bowl in comparison to Australian conditions. I'd be surprised if he's not frothing at the bit to get out there and have a crack.
"He's got a really level head and he can definitely get aggressive if he needs to. He's probably not the type of bloke you want to get under his skin too much because obviously he can crank it up if he needs to with the ball."
