Pat Cummins’ XI

Edgbaston, 2023. Australia needs 74 runs with three wickets in hand. Pat Cummins walks to the crease as number nine, the tail exposed, England circling. What follows is a demonstration of resolve.

- AMRITESH MUKHERJEE

He grinds, he hits, he absorbs, he refuses to crack. Australia would eventually clinch an unlikely victory.

Months later, in another improbable scenario, he would face over 10 overs of relentless bowling to shield Glenn Maxwell's miraculous double century against Afghanistan. Again, that same quality: Resolve. This is the consistent thread Cummins follows in Tested — an exploration of that which separates the successful from others.

“Resolve,” he writes, “is the drive to keep going, the wisdom to know where to focus your energies, and the fortitude to fight against the obstacles that you find along the way. It’s not necessarily relentlessness, ruthlessness or bloody-mindedness; it’s a steady hand, a deft touch and the ability to keep your head when everyone around you is losing theirs. Resolve is physical, emotional and moral courage born of a knowledge of yourself.”