Cricket Australia Takes Key 2027 World Cup Decision on Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood
Preparations for the 2027 ODI World Cup have already started, and Australia will kick off their campaign with the upcoming three-match ODI series during the Pakistan tour.
Cricket Australia (CA) made a rather bold decision for the Pakistan ODIs by resting regular captain Pat Cummins, along with Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc. Also, Travis Head and Cooper Connolly are not part of Australia’s squad for the three ODIs. Still, experienced all-rounder Cameron Green has managed to make the team, mostly as a finisher, you know.
Even if the pace bowlers are now in their thirties, they’ve continued to control things in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League 2026, pretty consistently it seems.
Cricket Australia has kind of carefully managed the player workload for guys like Cummins, Hazlewood and Starc over the last few months. I mean, the trio also missed the early bits of IPL 2026, while Cummins and Starc ended up sitting out almost half of the tournament.
This all seemed to come after Starc had to, sort of, carry the whole bowling attack by himself during the 2025/26 Ashes when both Cummins and Hazlewood were unavailable. After that, Australian team management has been really intent on shielding their key match-winners.
Ahead of the big Pakistan tour, Australian head coach Andrew McDonald said Cummins, Hazlewood and Starc wanted to be part of the ODI squad, but CA chose to rest them. The board made the call to handle their workload, before a major Test series later on in the season.
Reports also suggest that all three pacers stay on Australia’s radar for the 2027 World Cup, so long as they keep in shape and don’t lose their rhythm. Besides the Pakistan ODIs, the fast bowlers were given a bit of a breather for the bilateral tour in Bangladesh.
Mitchell Marsh, Australia’s T20I captain, is set to steer the side in the ODI format while Pat Cummins is away. At the same time, Liam Scott, Riley Meredith, and Billy Stanlake have picked up real chances in the 50-over group.
Xavier Bartlett , who made an impact for PBKS , has also been named in the setup. Still, he will skip the Pakistan tour and will instead link up straight with the squad in Bangladesh. Ben Dwarshuis will take the same route too, but he’ll be there only for the ODI matches.
Australia's squads for Pakistan, Bangladesh:
Australia ODI squad Vs Pakistan: Mitchell Marsh (c), Alex Carey, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Riley Meredith, Oliver Peake, Matthew Renshaw, Tanveer Sangha, Liam Scott, Matt Short, Billy Stanlake, Adam Zampa
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Australia ODI squad for Bangladesh:
Mitchell Marsh (c), Xavier Bartlett, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Matthew Renshaw, Tanveer Sangha, Liam Scott, Adam Zampa
Australia T20I squad for Bangladesh:
Mitchell Marsh (c), Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Joel Davies, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Spencer Johnson, Matthew Kuhnemann, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Matthew Renshaw, Adam Zampa