News
Australia head coach Andrew McDonald has asked supporters to “trust in what we’re doing” after the selectors chose to leave Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc out of next month’s one-day series in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The decision raised predictable eyebrows. All three quicks missed the opening half of this year’s IPL with assorted niggles; Cummins and Hazlewood have since bowled their franchises into the play-offs, which overlap with the start of the Pakistan trip. Yet, even once the IPL finishes, the trio will stay at home. Cummins and Hazlewood have also been excused the subsequent T20s in Dhaka, while Starc retired from international T20s last winter.
McDonald insists it is nothing more than long-range planning.
“You look at our fast-bowling cohort to get to 2027,” he said before the squad flew out. “People look at the immediate games in front of them and go, OK, why aren’t they playing there?
“But if you actually work back from 2027 and look what we’ve got coming up, this is the last significant break that we get to be able to invest into their bodies to set themselves up to get all the way through 2027. So 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.”
The calendar explains his caution. From mid-August this year, Australia embark on 20 Tests (21 if they reach the World Test Championship final), nine ODIs and five T20Is spread across four continents. That run ends with the 2027 World Cup in South Africa and Zimbabwe, scheduled for October of that year. Remove nine-odd weeks for the 2027 IPL and the workload is crammed into barely nine and a half months.
By tournament time Starc will be 37, Hazlewood 36, Cummins 34. Age is hardly terminal for quicks—James Anderson keeps showing that—but the margins shrink.
“We have done this before, in 2023. That was 19 Tests, so this is two more,” McDonald reminded. “The biggest difference there is we’re four years older, so that creates another layer and another challenge within that.”
Resting bowlers is not new, though the optics are rarely neat. Australia’s ‘big three’ have played just once together in 50-over cricket since the 2023 World Cup final in Ahmedabad, an occasion that ended with Cummins lifting the trophy. Fans naturally want to see champions on the park; broadcasters pay for it too. The coach understands the frustration yet bristles at the idea that players are hand-picking assignments.
“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,” he said. “These decisions are made around the management of what we have coming up within 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, fill that extra month up, and then we actually start chasing our tails a little bit as we go into what we know we’ve got coming up. So I just want to dispel that sort of narrative out there around players picking and choosing.”
The selectors, led by George Bailey, have gambled on depth. Lance Morris, uncapped in ODIs, and Nathan Ellis have another chance to press claims. Experienced hands such as Sean Abbott and Jhye Richardson fill out the pace cartel. All-rounders Aaron Hardie and Mitch Marsh can offer seam overs if required, while Adam Zampa leads the spin group.
Former Test quick Ryan Harris likes the approach. “You don’t get many decent gaps these days,” he told ABC radio. “If you’re serious about having those three at the next World Cup, you have got to manage them now, not in two years’ time.”
Still, not everyone is entirely sold. Ex-captain Michael Clarke argued on SEN that resting players outside a World Cup cycle is understandable but Cummins, Hazlewood and Starc “barely bowled a white-ball over all summer. Fans in Pakistan buy tickets expecting to see the best bowlers in the world.”
Selection chief Bailey has previously said the board’s duty of care extends beyond international matches. National contracts now account for the reality that top Australians will play IPL almost every year; time away from the national side is sometimes the price of keeping them fresh and committed.
Cummins, speaking after an IPL fixture last week, admitted the break is useful. “Yeah, we are getting older,” he laughed. “I’d love to play every series, but I also want to be fit and bowling quick in 2027.”
Australia’s next full-strength white-ball squad may not assemble until the Champions Trophy in Pakistan early next year, another ICC event that looms on the horizon. Between now and then McDonald is content to run a larger squad.
“It’s a great opportunity for the guys who are going to play in Pakistan and Bangladesh,” he said. “Someone will grab it—someone always does. Then, when Pat, Mitch and Josh come back, we’ll know more about the group behind them.”
For now, the conversation will rumble on. In a crowded global schedule, every rest day sparks debate. McDonald can live with that, provided the endgame is clear.
“Ultimately,” he said, “judge us in 2027.”
