Since his return against India less than a year ago, Cummins has survived a tour of Bangladesh and all five Ashes tests, coinciding with a sparkling return to form. 

If Australia can rely on the sudden hardiness of their prized-paceman, the side's lineup of quicks begins to appear very intimidating. 

"It's a little bit weird actually, especially being at the Wanderers the past couple of days. It feels so long ago that I was there, but I guess it was only a few Test matches ago for me," Cummins told the ABC. 

"My first memories were ones of fast wickets and the ball swinging around. So it's good to get out here and see that it's all pretty similar."

"There wasn't a heap of swing or sideways movement back in Australia.

"I felt like a lot of the time our biggest chance of wickets was trying to bowl bouncers and trying to get a false shot that way.

"Over here, looks like the ball's going to swing around a bit, and [during South Africa's] Test matches against India looked like there was a fair bit of nip when the seam was stood up.

"As a bowler, love seeing that, and to go with all that there's a bit of pace and bounce as well."