Australia start a run of 20 Tests and 14 white-ball games in 12 months on Thursday when they face Bangladesh in Darwin and Mackay. The period includes six ODIs in Zimbabwe and South Africa, three Tests in South Africa, eight white-ball games at home against England, four home Tests against New Zealand, a five-Test tour of India, a one-off 150th anniversary home Test against England in March and then a five-Test tour of England in June and July. There may also be a World Test Championship final added to the list.
Thereafter there is likely to be a home white-ball series against New Zealand in late August that will lead into the ODI World Cup in October and November.
“I know people will start talking about the IPL and filling that time and what does that look like,” McDonald told Cricinfo. “I’ve said this before, the IPL is part of our management plan for a lot of our players, and to expose our best players in what I believe is the best competition in terms of T20 cricket has its performance benefits as well. You’ve just got to balance that out.”
There has already been tension around those players’ availability for the IPL within India and Australia. Delhi Capitals, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad were left frustrated last season when Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins all arrived late to the tournament while they managed various injury issues under CA’s guidance.
There were some eyebrows raised in Australia when the national selectors opted to leave all three and Head out of two white-ball tours of Pakistan and Bangladesh, straight after being allowed to play the IPL, to rest and prepare for the brutal schedule ahead.
Finding eight-week breaks in the schedule for a non-playing, strength and conditioning period for Australia’s aging quicks has been critical to their ongoing fitness and long-term success into their mid-30s. The IPL period in 2027, which is likely to run from mid-March to the end of May before the WTC final in June, is the only such block Australia has without international cricket between now and the end of 2027. The IPL has introduced two-year bans for overseas players who sign during the auction then subsequently withdraw without an injury.
“I know that people say, country versus franchise and all that, but the important part of this period is that we’re allowing our fast bowlers to reset their body, get everything in order to give themselves the best opportunity across the 20 or 21 games that everyone talks about,” McDonald said.
“What I will say about our players is they make good decisions across the journey, and that’s underpinned by discussions with the medical team and coaches. They want to play for Australia. There’s an Ashes on the back of that. Hopefully, a World Test Championship final and into a World Cup. There’s a lot of important priority cricket for Australia in that period. So we’re going to have to make some decisions.”
Australia’s senior players faced this choice before in 2023 when they had a five-Test home summer against West Indies and South Africa run straight into a four-Test tour of India. The IPL was staged between the tour of India and the WTC final. Australia then played an away Ashes before touring South Africa and India for white-ball series and staying in India for the ODI World Cup which finished in late November.
Cummins, Starc and Head did not play in the IPL for various reasons in 2023 and used the April-May period to rest with all three playing pivotal roles across the WTC final, the retention of the Ashes via a 2-2 draw, and the ODI World Cup title. Hazlewood missed the Test tour of India through injury and only arrived at the IPL in May that year to play three games as a replacement player before playing four of the six Tests in England, six of eight ODIs in South Africa and India and the entire World Cup.
“The starting point is that you can do it all, and I think if you start from that point, then you can make decisions according to that,” McDonald said. “Whereas if you’re just defeatist and say, ‘well, that doesn’t fit’, how do we know where Pat Cummins is going to be come the fourth Test against New Zealand? How do we know where Mitchell Starc is going to be at the end of South Africa? We don’t know. So you gather all that information as you go across it. You make decisions from Test match to Test match, and the IPL will be a decision once again at the back end of the India [Test series].
“Will the quicks bowl much in India, for example? Where will Travis Head be at in terms of his mental load from being on tour for that period of time?
“The starting point, and this isn’t to keep people happy; the starting point is that the IPL can fit, and if it doesn’t fit, then you know these players, along with the management, have been willing to make those decisions.”
Green was the exception in 2023. He missed three Tests at the start of that year due to a broken finger but did travel for the entire India Test tour, playing the third and fourth Test, and ended up staying in India from late January to the end of May to play the full IPL before heading straight to England. He missed the third Ashes Test through injury and was dropped for the fifth Test owing to Mitchell Marsh’s stunning form on Test return.
Green also started the ODI World Cup but was dropped after one game and only played one more as a replacement for the injured Glenn Maxwell. In total, Green spent nearly six months in India in 2023 on top of two in England while losing his place in both Test and ODI team, but McDonald was wary of blaming the IPL for that ahead of a similar schedule in 2027.
“People always attach form to the decision-making,” McDonald said. “They’ll attach Greeny’s challenges within the Ashes based upon potentially that the IPL didn’t set him up to succeed in those conditions.
“But then, if you look at it realistically, it’s the first time he’d been to England in a key series. I think next time he goes to England and the Ashes series, he’ll be better prepared by that experience previously.
“So I don’t always buy into or subscribe to the fact that if players don’t perform coming on the back of the IPL, that the IPL’s to blame for that. It’s the same as saying, people coming out of the Big Bash can’t go and play in India, and if they don’t perform in India, it’s because of the Big Bash.
“I think the way the current landscape is, players are challenged by going in out of formats, and you don’t blame the series before for what happens in the next series.”
Alex Malcolm is an associate editor at Cricinfo
