Australian cricket team head coach Andrew McDonald revealed that it was Cricket Australia’s decision to rest Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood for the upcoming white-ball tours of Pakistan and Bangladesh. He said that all three pacers remain committed to leading Australia’s campaign in the ODI World Cup despite some of their injury concerns. Cricket Australia took the call to not include any of them for the two series as part of their workload management strategy in a packed calendar that will see Australia play up to 21 Test matches in the span of a single year. The main goal for the three pacers remains the 2027 World Cup and the decision was also taken keeping the huge amount of cricket in mind.
“I think people look at the immediate games and go, ‘Well, why aren’t they playing there?'” McDonald said. “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.”
All three players are currently playing in the IPL 2026 with Hazlewood and Cummins reaching the Playoffs stage.
“We just don’t feel like it’s the best time for them to play,” McDonald added.
Meanwhile, McDonald said that Australia’s T20I specialist Tim David has not made himself available for ODIs, but insisted he could play the role of a finisher at number seven for the 2027 ODI World Cup.
Since transitioning from Singapore cricket to Aussie cricket due to his upbringing in Australia after being born in Singapore, David has represented Australia in 57 T20Is, scoring 1,044 runs at an average of 30.70 and a strike rate of 174.00, with a century and five fifties and a best score of 102*. However, he has featured in just four ODIs leading up to the 2023 World Cup in India, scoring just 45 runs in four innings, with his best score of 35.
Currently, Tim is enjoying a massively successful stint as a globe-trotting T20 hitter, with his current stop being India, where he is representing defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the ongoing season. In 13 innings, he has scored 277 runs at an average of 39.57 and a strike rate of over 197, with a fifty to his name and a best score of 70*.
(With ANI inputs)
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