Australia are backing their mighty but injury-susceptible pace triumvirate to make it all the way to next year’s ODI World Cup, a tournament the reigning champions also hold hope of luring finisher Tim David to play in.
Coach Andrew McDonald insisted none of Pat Cummins, the 50-over captain, Mitchell Starc nor Josh Hazlewood wanted to skip upcoming white-ball tours of Pakistan and Bangladesh. They have instead been told to rest given the taxing runs of Tests to come.
During a 12-month stretch beginning in mid-August, Australia will play 20 Tests (21 if they make the World Test Championship final) which includes home matches against Bangladesh, New Zealand and the 150th anniversary match at the MCG, as well as trips to South Africa, India and England.
Having the Big Three firing in those campaigns remains the over-arching priority for Australia’s high-performance team. But McDonald believes he can also get his star quicks to the start line of the Aussies’ 50-over World Cup title defence in southern Africa.
One indication that event is more than an afterthought has been the recent appointment of former all-format wicketkeeper and batter Matthew Wade to a full-time assistant coaching role with the white-ball sides.
But it will be a mammoth ask to have all three of the star bowlers in top shape when that tournament comes around in October-November next year, by which time Starc and Hazlewood will be months away from their 38th and 37th birthdays respectively, while Cummins will be 34.
All three have been in top form in the IPL over recent weeks, with Cummins and Hazlewood both set to feature in the playoffs. Once that pair join Starc in heading home, the trio will use the June-July period to steel themselves for the busiest stretch of their careers.
“I think people look at the immediate games and go, ‘Well, why aren’t they playing there?'” said McDonald, who has been preparing Australia’s non-IPL tourists through a series of off-season camps in Brisbane and Adelaide.
“But if you actually work back from 2027 and look at what we’ve got coming up, this is the last significant break that we get to invest into their bodies to set themselves up to get all the way through to 2027. We are planning for them to be there in 2027.
“I think there needs to be a lot of trust in what we’re doing to be able to get them there. It’s going to be a significant challenge, in particular for our fantastic (sports science and medical) team, they’ve done a great job over a period of time.
“I think there’s almost a misconception that the players are sort of picking and choosing as to where they play and which series they play in. These decisions are made around the management of what is coming up with in the schedule – and they don’t choose that.
“We work with them on it … those players want to play. We just don’t feel like it’s the best time for them to play.”
Nathan Ellis aside, there has been little competition to the Big Three for pace spots in the white-ball teams over the past half-decade. Billy Stanlake, Riley Meredith, Ben Dwarshuis and Xavier Bartlett will all get the chance for the Pakistan and Bangladesh one-dayers, while Spencer Johnson will feature in the T20 series in Chattogram.
While form has been a given with Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins, fitness has increasingly not been.
Starc has been the most durable of the trio in recent times, stunning even CA’s own medicos by playing all five Ashes Test last summer. But he was then held back from the start of the IPL after the left-armer admitted he had shoulder and elbow injuries “which I didn’t know the extent of during the Australian summer”.
Hazlewood has played exactly half of Australia’s last 38 Tests dating back to the beginning of the 2022-23 summer, with hamstring and Achilles issues sidelining him for the entire recent Ashes campaign.
Cummins’ absence from Pakistan and Bangladesh, meanwhile, will mean he will have played just one match for Australia in 13 months between July 2025 and August 2026 due to the back stress injury that sidelined him for all but the Adelaide Test of the recent home season.
That Australia’s best two back-up Test quicks, Michael Neser and Scott Boland, are 36 and 37 respectively, and their still-rehabilitating spinner, Nathan Lyon, is 38, all further adds to the fitness crunch.
Even though the brutal forthcoming schedule is not an altogether unfamiliar challenge, McDonald suggested managing that group of bowlers will be Australia’s biggest test over the coming months.
“We have done this before also in 2023,” he said of a calendar year that also saw Australia contend with Test tours of India and England, a WTC final and an ODI World Cup. “The biggest difference is we’re four years older.
“I think we’re well placed if we’re fit and healthy,” McDonald added. “And that’s going to be the biggest challenge. How do we get the players through that demand? How do we manage them, in particular our fast bowlers?
“We are getting older, so that’s going to create some different management challenges. They’ve been incredibly robust, a lot of those players, and a few have had a few recent (injury) pickups, so it’s something that we need to invest a lot of time into.”
T20 captain Mitch Marsh continues to lead the 50-over team in his close friend Cummins’ absence, but Australia’s plan remains for the fast bowler to lead the Aussies’ title defence after he masterminded their 2023 final win over India.
McDonald conceded Cummins’ injury troubles, sparked by an elevated – though not unprecedented – workload across last year’s WTC final and Caribbean Test tour, had been an unexpected setback.
“That would be the design,” McDonald said of Cummins remaining the ODI captain despite having played just two of Australia’s last 22 games in that format.
“I think he works incredibly well with Mitch Marsh as well, so if Patty was to fall short and not get there to 2027 then Mitch has obviously got the opportunity to lead that team now and that should hold him in good stead for what comes up.
“They’re working together, so Pat’s invested in the one-day team … we choose not to play him for the benefit of his body. Even on the back of what recently happened (with) his back injury – that probably surprised us – so we know that we need to really make sure we manage him well to get through that.
“It surprised us in terms of how much load – or lack of load – that he had to attribute to a stress-related injury.”
If there is an expectation the experience of Cummins and his teammates can off-set a lack of ODI game volume leading into the next major ICC event, Australia are also not shutting the door on a man who has not played a List A match in almost three years.
David has become arguably Australia’s most important T20I player but has held out from signing a national deal with CA, leaving him able to play in domestic T20 leagues around the world and skip bilateral ODI series.
The 30-year-old has become something of a white whale for the ODI group.
The powerful right-hander was tried in the one-day team in a series against South Africa leading into the last 50-over World Cup in 2023. Australia’s need for his skills have only increased since given the ODI retirements of finishers Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis.
“It is something we’re looking at,” McDonald said of David returning to the ODI team. “Tim hasn’t made himself available for ODI cricket as yet in amongst everything that he’s doing. But open-minded that potentially that is a conversation down the track.
“That would be something that TD would need to come to us and signal his intention to play one-day international cricket. We used him in the build (up) to the last World Cup … TD was someone that we felt could potentially play in that finishing number seven role.
“Will we be exposed there? Can Tim be a part of that conversation? Maybe, but ultimately at this stage he’s not available for one-day international cricket.”
Australia play Zimbabwe, South Africa and England in ODIs later this year. It is unclear how many more they will then play during their hectic Test-heavy run through 2027. McDonald indicated David would need to feature in some bilateral ODI cricket before the World Cup to be in contention.
“You probably want some continuity around how it looks for him in 50-over cricket, so you want some connection within the team at some point,” said the coach. “I don’t know when that time is … you never say never.”
