Young Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins has backed new prodigy Ashton Agar, saying that he is confident that the Ashes hero has the maturity and balance in his life to handle his new-found stardom.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, similar to Agar, Cummins also had a shock start to his Test career in Johannesburg in 2011 as an 18-year-old, in which he took seven wickets for the match and hit the winning runs in a two-wicket win over South Africa that will go down as one of Australia's greatest, with just two games under his belt.
However, the report said that although Cummins remained one of the best fast bowling debuts in Test cricket, despite it coming away from the hype of the Ashes, he is aware that no cricketer can stay with their head in the clouds forever as he has been prevented from playing another Test since his fascinating debut.
While the teenaged Agar is preparing to fulfill a dream and play at Lord's, Cummins, who is in Zimbabwe on the comeback trail with Australia A, said that he is confident that his good friend Agar can handle his new status as a star with alacrity.
But Cummins warned Agar that handling the inevitable downturns is the eventual key to long-term success, saying that he needed to realise that a player will continue to have ups and downs in his career and not always remain on an artificial high, adding that he also needed to balance his career and his status.
However, Cummins assured Agar that the career lows are never as low as imagined, saying that he need to take confidence and base his future performances on his Ashes starring debut score of 98 runs, which Cummins called a 'career highlight'.
Stating that it was surreal to watch Agar's magical 98 in the first Test, Cummins marveled at the fact that just a few weeks ago, Agar was focused on getting back to Western Australia for a good pre-season before the Sheffield Shield, adding that the youngster looked fearless and deserved to be over the moon to play in a Test match.