Cricket Australia Backs Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Josh Hazlewood For 2027 ODI World Cup

Cricket Australia has backed its pace brigade to make it to the 2027 ODI World Cup, which will be co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia. The injury-susceptible 50-over skipper Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, and Mitchell Starc joined the 2026 IPL season late. According to coach Andrew McDonald, neither of the speedsters wants to skip the upcoming white-ball tours of Pakistan and Bangladesh, but they have been rested considering the upcoming exhausting red-ball campaigns.

Starting from mid-August, Australia will play 20 Tests, which can be 21 if they reach the World Test Championship, which includes home matches against Bangladesh, New Zealand, trips to reigning champions South Africa, India, England and the 150th match at the MCG

"I think people look at the immediate games and go, 'Well, why aren't they playing there?'" said McDonald, who has been preparing Australia's non-IPL tourists through a series of off-season camps in Brisbane and Adelaide.

"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."