For now, though, the likelihood of three of them in the same XI at the SCG on Sunday will have to do.

Cummins, 23, is being set for a first Australian appearance since September 2015 in the first of three Chappell-Hadlee Trophy one-day internationals against New Zealand and is poised to feature in an all-NSW attack alongside Starc and Hazlewood.

In terms of comebacks to international cricket from injury, this is not his first rodeo. But before steaming in to bowl in the nets to Australian captain Steve Smith on Friday he explained why this one felt different. Amid all the brash, old-school talk about telling fast bowlers bowlers to simply bowl, Cummins says his carefully designed road map has been of great benefit to him.

"I think this time I've been a little bit more patient and I think that's given me an extra few months to really work on a few things, accuracy, work on pace and just a slower build-up," Cummins said.

"So once I got up and running for the Matador Cup I felt like I was starting off the normal season I hadn't just raced back had a big pre-season. So I think that's probably the first, the main big change, and just feeling a bit more comfortable knowing I wasn't going to fly straight back onto the next tour and have to bowl as well as I was 12 months ago. Just having a bit more time has made a big difference I think."

The questions about when Cummins will return to the Test equation linger - and as he readily admits, he needs to be playing first-class cricket before that happens, and he's got his eye on the second half of the Sheffield Shield season and then the Ashes. It's been five years since that remarkable Test debut at the Wanderers and while he has grown up before our eyes, it hasn't been in front of as many as he would have liked.

Even so, Cummins is still young and still quick – just ask Smith after facing him on Friday, and the New Zealanders who will front up to him on Sunday – and full of optimism. He remains a year and a bit short of getting beyond the so-called danger zone for fast bowlers when it comes to stress fractures and sees a lot of blue sky ahead.

"I think we were actually playing a game here a couple of years ago and Josh Hazlewood had his 25th birthday and the physio said to him 'happy bone healing day' or something," Cummins said. "I don't think it's a magic number but I think it's the trend.

"Obviously Starcy and Hazlewood have played heaps since they were 24 really, 23. The older I get, hopefully the stronger I am."

The Australian team confirmed on Friday that Hilton Cartwright that the bolter in the ODI squad, all-rounder Hilton Cartwright, was being released to re-join Western Australia for their next Sheffield Shield match.