With their eyes firmly set on their next glory, the T20 World Cup 2024, Australia are likely to allow their lethal pacer trio to play the T20Is against West Indies and New Zealand. Skipper Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood were a part of the victorious side at the ODI World Cup 2023 and a part of the the Test series against Pakistan and West Indies.
Australia’s premium pace trio likely for T20Is
As per ESPNCricinfo, Australia coach Andrew McDonald indicated that the trio might play in the shortest format as well, saying that there might be some players who might play. The selection meeting for the two series will happen on Monday to finalize the squads. The coach supplemented the possibility by adding that they would be aiming to send a near full strength squad for the series against New Zealand while noting that the series against WI would be more nuanced.
“We’ll give some thought to that,” Australia head coach Andrew McDonald said. “There’ll be some that may play, and there’ll be some that might not play. It’ll be different squads [for each series]. We’ll look to potentially be at full strength for the New Zealand series.”
“We’ve got six games before the World Cup. A lot of the World Cup planning is in place at the moment. We’ll try to be as close to full strength for the New Zealand series as possible. The West Indies series is slightly nuanced.”
Although the trio are rested for the West Indies ODI series, it is evident that they can potentially feature in T20Is, given the nature of the last couple of Test series they have played. None of the three have bowled more than 38 overs in the last four Tests they have played. It is pertinent to note that the combo of Cummins-Hazlewood-Starc were a part of the side that lifted the T20 WC in 2021 in UAE and going on to not play any T20Is in 2023.
