As Australia were chastened by their thrashing by England on Tuesday they were able to take solace that Pat Cummins and Ashton Agar had reinforced they are on the way to fulfilling the lofty expectations of them. 
Agar was making his first international appearance since the 2013 Ashes series, and responded encouragingly with 1-45 from nine overs. Cummins has entrenched his status as the most impressive bowler so far in the limited-overs series. The 22-year-old bowled with dazzling pace and menace to suggest that in the space of five and a half months he has come a long way from the bowler passed over from all three of Australia's World Cup finals.
"Pat is the kind of guy, with such a great attitude towards cricket, that he's just running in and trying to bowl quick at the moment, and not so worried about where they're going," said Aaron Finch. "That's the ignorance of youth. He's just running in and trying to bowl quick - and he's bowling beautifully at the moment. I think that as he gets more cricket under his belt he's only going to get better." In the first match where Australia's prized pace trio of Cummins, Mitch Starc and James Pattinson had played in the same match it was Cummins who impressed the most. His pace was unrelenting, to the extent he continued his apparent hold over Alex Hales by removing the England opener in his first over.
At the business end of the World Cup the right-armer was overlooked because selectors were not confident he could be relied upon to keep the scoring down given their attack also featured strike-bowlers Starc and Mitch Johnson. With Johnson rested for this series, Cummins has revelled in Johnson's role - to the extent he has outshined even Starc, who looks in need of a rest.
Cummins is said to be focusing less on accuracy now his economy has improved. On Tuesday half of his deliveries were dot balls, demonstrating he was able to be attacking without regular boundaries flowing from it. Arguably his most menacing delivery was a grille-bound bouncer to the England captain Eoin Morgan, who managed to sway away.
Cummins and Agar are Australia's youngest Test players over the past 30 years, having had their debuts at respectively 18 and 19.