Cummins learning from Indian great

Legendary Indian quick Zaheer Khan has reportedly found a keen student in young Australian quick Pat Cummins.

Cummins, 15 years Zaheer's junior, has been working closely with the left-armer ever since joining Indian Premier League franchise Delhi Daredevils, where Zaheer is captain.

And the 38-year-old left-armer, who took more 600 wickets for India before retiring from international cricket in October 2015, as quickly formed a strong partnership with Cummins.

The pair have combined for 10 wickets in three matches so far, while South African allrounder Chris Morris has taken seven scalps to help move the Daredevils into third spot on the ladder.

And Daredevils coaching director T. A. Sekhar says Zaheer has been a worthy role model for Delhi's impressive pace attack, which also includes gun South African quick Kagiso Rabada.

"Zaheer is a very intelligent cricketer and his tips have helped bowlers in the past," Sekar said. "This time, Cummins has learnt a few things from him.

"Zaheer is good at bowling those cutters, which are not easy for the batsmen to read.

"If you hear Zaheer taking about the game during the bowlers' meeting, you will know how tactically and technically well he reads the game."

Cummins has been miserly in his three matches so far, taking five wickets at 15 and at a stingy economy rate of 6.8 runs an over.

The right-armer has already eclipsed his performances from his previous IPL stints, when he took just two wickets in four matches for the Kolkata Knight Riders and leaked nine runs an over.

Speaking to cricket.com.au in February, before he was picked up for $875k by the Daredevils in the player auction, Cummins was confident he would be better equipped to handle T20 cricket in India than he had been previously.

"The last few times I didn't have a lot of cricket leading into (the IPL) so it felt like I was a little bit raw going over there," he said, before he earned a shock recall for the final two Tests of Australia's recent Test series against India.

"But this year I've played a lot of one-day cricket, a lot of T20s and I'm a couple of years older.

"As a pace bowler you know your pace is not going to be your main weapon over there so you've got to learn slower balls and yorkers and different things.

"So in the space of five to six weeks you almost have to re-invent yourself as a bowler to try and be successful over there.

"It's a really hard tournament, especially for bowlers.

"You play so many games and the batsmen get so good at manipulating fields and hitting all kinds of bowling, so it's a huge learning opportunity."

Cummins, Zaheer and co will need to be at their best in Delhi's next match when the host the ladder-leading Knight Riders on Monday.