Tim David has no plans to chase an ODI recall this year, despite Australia’s white-ball rebuild and the retirements of Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis and Steven Smith.
David, 29, remains one of the most sought-after T20 finishers in the game, but he last played a 50-over match – anywhere – during Australia’s four-game series in South Africa in 2023. He has not appeared in domestic List A cricket since November 2021, when he turned out once for Tasmania.
“Definitely having conversations in the background with my coaches, and people that I want to talk to, about my game at the moment,” David said on Tuesday. “I’m not too sure, to be honest. It’s not the immediate plan. We’ve got such a busy year, to be honest, leading up to this T20 World Cup. The winter actually looks quite different for me this year. Previously, I would have been away for four or five months in a row over the winter playing competitions. And now we’ve got so many T20 series that there’s not much time to think about much else. So we’ll see how that develops. But at the moment, no plans.”
Selectors have floated his name in private as a potential late-over option in ODIs, mindful that Australia lifted the 2023 World Cup with Maxwell and Stoinis providing middle-order muscle. David’s four South African ODIs offered flashes – a 35-ball 45 in Centurion, a couple of tough catches at long-on – yet he slipped out of the squad once Maxwell regained fitness.
Since then he has recommitted to Hobart Hurricanes for two more BBL seasons, but he still does not hold a full domestic contract. That freedom lets him roam the franchise circuit, although the schedule is changing. A packed run of Australia T20Is – West Indies away in July, New Zealand at home in September, India in November – has replaced his usual winter of league-hopping.
He is currently in Perth, rehabbing the hamstring strain suffered late in the IPL. Despite missing the playoffs, his death-over hitting for Royal Challengers Bangalore underpinned their maiden title run. The original plan was to test the leg in Guyana’s new Global Super League this week.
“Initially, that was the plan, especially once the Hurricanes had a team in the GSL,” David said. “Unfortunately, the injury and just the nature of it was that was going to be pretty tight time schedule. And I’ve probably got a couple of things that I n”
The sentence tailed off, typical of a player still weighing options. For now, medical staff prefer he travel to the Caribbean fresh for Australia’s three-match T20I series starting 20 July in Jamaica.
Analysis
• Australia’s ODI middle order is thin on experience; Matt Short and Aaron Hardie have been earmarked but neither closes out innings the way Maxwell once did.
• David’s high career strike-rate (160-plus in T20s) and success against pace at the death translate well to the 50-over game on paper. The obvious gap is exposure to the slower early overs, where ODI innings often begin quietly.
• Without domestic one-day cricket his pathway is limited to direct national selection – something chief selector George Bailey has done before, yet rarely for players ignoring the longer format entirely.
The decision, then, sits somewhere between personal workload and opportunity cost. A stacked T20 year, an ongoing rehab, and lucrative franchise deals mean one-day cricket simply does not fit right now. That may shift closer to the 2027 World Cup, but as David himself puts it, ‘no plans’ remains the short-term outlook.
