“It’s funny what years you kind of bookmark. I remember 2019 was a huge year. Then I was thinking after that, OK 2023 we’ve got the same huge year, a World Cup and an Ashes, plus an India tour. I think it sounds like 2027 is the next big one. That seems forever away now.”
With those words, Australia’s captain Pat Cummins earmarked 2027 as the next big signpost in the story of the national team.
Leadership handover: Pat Cummins and Travis Head.Credit: AP
As Cummins pointed out, planning for a year similarly big and eventful as 2023 needs to start well in advance.
In 2019, it was clear that the team would be of similar personnel four years later. But this time around, the regeneration of the Test side in particular is starting to become the key topic following David Warner’s retirement and the prospect of more to come.
This masthead has consulted with a wide range of key figures in Australian cricket – selectors, coaches, talent spotters and players – to look ahead to what the Test team might look like in 2027, when tours of India and England will again be undertaken around a World Cup campaign.
A prospective XI has been chosen, plus a wider squad, and also a new captain and coach, given the fact that Andrew McDonald’s contract is due to expire in 2026, and that Cummins has made it clear he intends to step down about the same time.
Which members of the current Test team and squad will still be there? Travis Head, almost certainly as captain. Marnus Labuschagne the seasoned number three. Cameron Green now among the world’s leading players at number four. Cummins, no longer skipper but still the spearhead of the attack. And the ageless Nathan Lyon, clinging to his promise to go back to India and England for one more crack.
Then there are those not in the team but with the experience of having been there. A host of senior figures in Australian cricket are holding out hope that Will Pucovski will put together the consistent runs and appearances that would allow him to add to his one Test match in January 2021. And Matt Renshaw, now installed as the reserve batter, can be expected to slot in whenever Usman Khawaja retires.
Amid the howls of anguish from Perth that Cameron Bancroft had not been selected for the Adelaide Test against the West Indies, there seemed little acknowledgement of a wider truth: The Australian team is getting more West Australian all the time, and by 2027 may have as many as half the team from that state.
Like Pucovski, Jhye Richardson’s struggles to stay on the park have been a matter of concern for a selection panel that is extremely eager to get him back into Test cricket. But like a young Cummins, there is hope for Richardson to shrug off those problems and emerge as the skiddy, skilful complement to taller operators.
Aaron Hardie is the most promising young all-round cricketer outside the Test side, and is widely expected to be playing for Australia in all formats soon. Josh Inglis is still at Alex Carey’s heels and may well find he has taken over the gloves in the next year or two. And the “wild thing” Lance Morris is every chance to succeed Mitchell Starc as the firebrand of the pace attack.
In looking across recent selections for Australia A and Cricket Australia XI teams, it is clear that the panel has high hopes for Nathan McSweeney, the former Queenslander playing consistently for SA. He is a strong chance, soon, to succeed Head as captain of the state.
Tanveer Sangha and Todd Murphy are the outstanding young spin bowlers in Australia, and should make a complementary pair should conditions suit. Corey Rocchiccioli, the WA off-spinner who flights the ball tantalisingly into the breeze at the WACA Ground, is another to keep an eye on.
Among fast bowlers, the Redbacks’ young seamer Jordan Buckingham turned plenty of heads when he knocked over Khawaja at the vital moment of a tight Sheffield Shield encounter at the Gabba earlier this season – the sort of moment selectors tend to keep in their pocket.
And Matt Short and Ollie Davies, perhaps the two most free-flowing young batting talents in the country, have shown increasing levels of poise against the red ball in recent times. Davies’ innings were the single biggest reason NSW were able to pull out of an early season slump in the Shield.
The selectors like to see young players taking bowlers on, based simply on the fact that it will always be harder to score freely at the next level. Jake Fraser-McGurk, of course, could be absolutely anything, but will need a few more strong displays in Shield matches to fully shake off the tag of Twenty20 marauder. Then again, David Warner did it.
With Head already installed as Cummins’ deputy and likely successor, the bigger question surrounds the coach after McDonald.
For the most likely candidate it is again opportune to look west, where Adam Voges has helmed the WA and Scorchers program to repeated success with a firm but understated style well suited to young players as well as seniors.
Something that marks Voges as a suitable candidate in particular is how he took a soundly functioning state set-up, then coached by Justin Langer, and maximised its potential. That’s precisely what Australia will hope to do after McDonald, with the goal of finally winning series in India and England after dual droughts that will, by 2027, have lasted more than two decades.
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