Where is the hype for an Australian summer? Pat Cummins ready for West Indies Test series

It starts when Pat Cummins meets Kragg Brathwaite in the middle of Perth Stadium for a coin toss. There's always something in the air before the first Test of the summer. TV screens are flicked on inside offices, radios are fired up on job sites, and school kids are checking scorecards on their phones and scrambling to hide the evidence when a teacher glances up from their desk.

But this summer feels different.

The die hards have been waiting for months, but you could forgive a casual fan for not even realising the Test series is about to start. Maybe it's because the relatively unknown West Indies no longer boast the household names of years gone by.

The bookmakers tell you they're ripe for an Australian attack spearheaded by Cummins, light work for an opening batter named Usman Khawaja, ageing like fine wine.

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Steve Waugh once claimed the Frank Worrell Trophy was more important than the Ashes.

Boxing Day crowds in the late 1990s were regularly bigger to watch West Indies than England, yet they have not played a Test against Australia in seven years. Perth Stadium could be up to three-quarters empty on day one.

Never would an Ashes or Border-Gavaskar Trophy series be given such a lacklustre build-up, so you naturally wonder if the trophy holds the same relevance.

"It's hard for me to say," Cummins said.

"I haven't played them ever in Test match cricket. They are coming back here next summer, so it is good to play them twice in two years.

"With a World Test Championship, that's something big to play for. We get a few wins here it pretty much guarantees our spot in London.

"The big series, say Ashes or India series where you play four or five Test matches, are obviously big battles. The more common series where you play two or three in a series, it gives them a bit more global context and something a bit extra to play for."

Australia is coming off a massive summer against England, which was preceded by another Twenty20 World Cup. Could there be such a thing as an Ashes hangover?

Maybe the low-key build-up is because the name on one of the Perth stands continues to dig at old wounds caused by his demise 10 months ago, which is why the match day headlines are about Cummins defending Australian cricket from former coach Justin Langer's "coward" accusations.

Langer caused a stir with claims on a podcast that "cowards" leaked damaging accusations about him during his tenure as national coach, diverting attention from the looming Test series to off-field issues. Hardly welcome for an Australian team so often on the nose.

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Or is it because we're already in the midst of what feels like cricket's endless summer? It's romantic in theory but almost painful in practice.

Would there be more hype about the prospect of David Warner stealing the show in Test cricket's long-awaited return to Perth if Australia had won the Twenty20 World Cup on home soil? Maybe, but even that tournament failed to capture the attention of so many.

Before Wednesday's opening delivery, we've seen the short format's international showpiece run and won. The WBBL is finished. A one-day series against England was closed out in front of a record-low crowd of 10,406 at the MCG. The West Indies were here for two Twenty20 matches little more than a week after Australia returned from a three-game series in India.

And Australia's season started before all of that.

Remember Cameron Green joining Alex Carey at the crease with New Zealand quick Trent Boult on a tear which left Australia teetering at 5-44 in Cairns?

It was September 6 and the NRL finals series was days away from kicking off. The Penrith Panthers were still dreaming of back-to-back premierships. Eventual AFL grand finalists Geelong Cats and Sydney Swans were still 18 sleeps away from the last Saturday in September.

The scorecards show Carey scored 85 while Green was unbeaten on 89, steering the hosts to a two-wicket win to launch Australia's summer of international cricket, before Clint Gutherson's right boot had launched the final race to rugby league's crown.

If you've already been bowled over, Cummins is imploring you to be swept up in "so many good stories around the week", though he has not escaped scrutiny. His decision to avoid appearing in promotions for Alinta Energy during the final year of its multi-million dollar sponsorship deal with Cricket Australia was criticised by those who say politics and sport are a toxic mix. Newsflash: the pair are intrinsically linked.

Maybe everything will feel right again when he strides out to the wicket in a baggy green and a blazer.

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