Melbourne, May 25 (IANS) Australia head coach Andrew McDonald said the team is planning around Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins for their 2027 ODI World Cup title defence, despite the trio missing the upcoming 50-over tours of Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Cummins and Hazlewood will play the IPL 2026 playoffs for Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bengaluru respectively, while Starc will return home after Delhi Capitals campaign came to an end.

“I think people look at the immediate games and go, ‘Well, why aren’t they playing there?’ 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,” McDonald told reporters on Monday.

The three quicks combined for 47 wickets in Australia’s 2023 World Cup triumph but have not played an ODI together since November 2024. Though Mitchell Marsh is the stand-in ODI captain, Cummins is still the regular 50-over skipper.

But Cummins has only played two ODIs since winning the 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup and has also not played a T20I after June 2024. McDonald, though, assured that Cummins will be there to lead Australia in the 2027 ODI World Cup.

“We have done this before also in 2023. The biggest difference is we’re four years older. “I think we’re well placed if we’re fit and healthy. 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. Pat’s still invested in the one-day team.

“It is just that we choose not to play him for the benefit of his body, and even on the back of what recently happened around his back injury, we know that that probably surprised us, so we know that we need to really make sure we manage him well to get through that, and to have the opportunity to bring that group together for 2027, and that’s going to have some incredible complexities to it,” he added.

McDonald further said the absence of senior players opens opportunities for others, including all-rounder Cameron Green, to stake a claim for a regular spot in the ODI set-up. “It’s really where we position him and what role we want him to play, because I think he’s got the ability to really play high up the order and low.

“He does have some power, we saw in that Top End series last year against South Africa, his ability to finish off that innings in the absence of Glenn Maxwell. So we had that conversation. We keep these things open – experiment is not the right word – but we’ll look at different ways to play in the journey to the 2027 World Cup and where he fits exactly in that.

“We’ve got some options there because of his range of skills. Definitely the bowling is a big part of that. The fifth bowler … that can be an exposure point for any team. We’ve always gone with four frontline (bowlers) and then the allrounders pick that (fifth bowler’s load) up. So I feel like he has a big part to play with the ball as well.

“The more bowling he gets under his belt, there’s improvement there, so a good sign is on the back of where he’s been as well. This IPL, the skills are coming back, the white-ball skills in particular off the back of the surgery he’s had,” he concluded.

–IANS

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