‘This isn’t a normal tour’: Pat Cummins reflects from Rawalpindi ahead of historic first Pakistan Test

A common theme among the players is how fortunate we are to be here when a whole generation of Australian cricketers never got to experience what it was to play in this part of the world.

We know this isn’t a normal tour.

It’s a special moment in our lives and careers.

We want to embrace the unknowns. From a cricketing point of view, we’ve not played in Pakistan since Mark Taylor was skipper in 1998 and performing in these conditions represents a great challenge for every player. And from a personal perspective, we want to absorb and appreciate every element of this once-in-a-lifetime experience. Personally, I can’t wait to hear the Rawalpindi crowd for the first time on Friday.

There was a cool moment during training on Tuesday when the call to prayer from Rawalpindi echoed across the ground with the mountains off in the distance. I also found out that day that the first sessions on every Friday of this series will be two-and-a-half hours, with an hour-long lunch break for prayers, because it is the holy day of the week. We’re learning all the time over here.

I asked Usman Khawaja to put together a trivia quiz for the guys after we arrived to give them a better appreciation of the culture and history of Pakistan. It was a bit of fun – Uz was quiz master with Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith the contestants – but the point of the exercise was to deepen our understanding of the country we’re in and its rich traditions.

(Smithy won, for those wondering).

Uz also spoke to us about the opportunity we have to make a difference and bring happiness to millions of people across Pakistan during this tour. It’s been quite moving for us to be alongside him on his return to his country of birth and it clearly means the world to him to think we might inspire a new generation of Pakistani cricketers over the coming weeks.

Uz will no doubt be a fan favourite here, as he should be, but this will also be the first opportunity Pakistani fans have had to see greats of the Australian game like Dave Warner or Smithy in person. This might be their first and last opportunity to do that, depending on future scheduling. I suspect we’ll be talking about this trip for many years to come.

At the presentation in Hobart after the final Ashes Test this summer, Smithy came over to me and said, ‘I can’t wait to play overseas again.’ I feel the same way.

I’m in my late 20s, which usually are considered the peak years for a fast bowler, and I’ve hardly played any Test cricket over the last couple of years due to Covid-19 and scheduling. One of the great experiences of playing international cricket is testing yourself in different conditions around the world. I can’t wait to experience the local conditions here in Pakistan and I know the boys feel the same way.

I’m looking forward to watching our younger players in action. Cam Green has been a Test player for more than a year but hasn’t had an opportunity to play outside of Australia until now. Even someone like Marnus, with 23 Tests to his name, has only played six of those abroad.

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This is an important tour from a Cricket Australia perspective, too. We have welcomed so many wonderful touring teams in our country over the years, and it’s great to be on the road again. That’s what international cricket is all about. We are the fourth Test team to tour Pakistan since teams were permitted back here and that’s something everyone is proud of. Personally, I can’t think of a better set of circumstances to kick-off life as a touring captain.

The effort and planning that has gone into making this series happen is extraordinary.

I was told it was a 15,000-to-20,000 person operation to ferry us from the airport to the hotel here in Islamabad. I don’t doubt it. We didn’t spot a single car on the freeway for the entire 30 minute commute and there were police and commandos stationed every couple of hundred metres, not to mention those who were part of our convoy.

The boys were a bit lost for words when we hopped off the flight from Melbourne to Islamabad and straight into a military-style bus on the tarmac. They were tapping the windows because they were five or six inches thick! None of us had experienced anything quite like it before. It was also quite surreal when we took the 10 minute drive from the hotel to the stadium in Rawalpindi on Tuesday. The entire route had been shut down. No people except for security personnel. Roller doors down on all the shops.

We’re fortunate that so many people have put in so much effort to allow us to enjoy our cricket here. The ground itself is lovely and the wicket looks really good. We’re up in the north of Pakistan – a little over 200 kilometres from the Khyber Pass – and the weather is quite cool in these parts given we’re at the end of the winter season.

We know our movements will be restricted, which we’ve become pretty accustomed to playing through the pandemic these last two years. We prepared accordingly.

In addition to the PlayStations and card games, we’ve brought a basketball ring and hired a golf simulator with a big projector and nets that we’re going to roll up and take with us around the country. Mitch Starc is the commissioner of a matchplay tournament for which 18 of us have signed up. It hasn’t had the best of starts: Josh Hazlewood accidentally hit the machine and snapped Travis Head’s driver. You can imagine how that went down.

But it’s all a bit of fun. It’s important to not have everyone locked up in their rooms all day and these things help to build camaraderie.

Marnus has also brought with him a full-on commercial coffee machine, 30 kilos of beans and about 1000 litres of oat milk. It’s a proper set-up. He even does the whole latte art-thing with the love heart in the milk.

Most importantly, it’s directly opposite my room.

I’m giving it a good work out.