Australia head coach Andrew McDonald has stressed the importance of carefully managing the team’s senior fast bowlers as preparations for the 2027 ICC Men’s World Cup gather pace.
Australia is set to tour Pakistan for a three-match ODI series, led by stand-in captain Mitchell Marsh, from May 30 to June 4 in Rawalpindi and Lahore respectively.
However, the team will be without key members of the pace attack including Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood – a trio that played a key role in Australia’s successful 2023 World Cup campaign.
Despite their absence, MacDonald insisted the experienced bowlers remain central to Australia’s long-term plans.
“People look at instant games and say, ‘Well, why aren’t they playing there?’ I think so,” McDonald said.
“But if you actually work back from 2027 and look at what we have coming up, that’s the last significant gap to invest in their bodies to set themselves up all the way to 2027. We plan to have them there in 2027,” he added.
Cummins, Hazlewood and Starc combined for 47 wickets during Australia’s sixth ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup title campaign in 2023.
However, the popular pace trio have not played an ODI together since November 2024 during the home series against Pakistan.
Cummins, in particular, has featured in just two of Australia’s last 22 ODIs.
McDonald believes workload management will be key as Australia keep their aging pace attack fit ahead of next year’s world event.
“We’ve done this before in 2023. The biggest difference is that we’re four years older.
“I think if we’re fit and healthy we’re in good shape and that’s going to be the biggest challenge. How do we get players through that need? How do we manage them, especially our pacers?
“We’re getting older, so that’s going to create some different management challenges. They’re incredibly strong, but some have had recent injury setbacks, so it’s something we have to invest a lot of time in,” he concluded.