Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood on track to feature in all seven Tests in summer

MELBOURNE: The Australian pace trio of skipper Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood looks to be on track to feature in all seven Test matches of the summer against Pakistan, West Indies and New Zealand as the coach Andrew McDonald and Cummins are surprised with the physical fitness of the trio after a heavy year featuring the ICC World Test Championship final, The Ashes and ICC Cricket World Cup in India.

Cummins, Hazlewood and Starc have appeared in 28 Tests together as a pace trio, but it is only the second time that they have played five successive Tests together, as per ESPNCricinfo.

Their previous five successive appearances came in 2020-21, first playing a home series against India of four Tests from December 2020 to January 2021 then the first Ashes Test in December 2021. This was made possible by a 11-month COVID-19 induced gap between their fourth and fifth Test.

This time around, the trio featured in last two Tests of the Ashes series and then the whole home series against Pakistan of three Tests.

Cummins and Starc played in the ICC World Test Championship final. Cummins, Hazlewood and Starc played 10 out of 11 World Cup fixtures together as well.

The trio will be playing the first Test against West Indies from January 17 onwards at Adelaide and could also play their next four matches against WI and Kiwis without any break, confirmed the coach McDonald. Both sides will play two Tests each against the WTC title holders.

"There is nothing to indicate they will need a rest," McDonald said after the four-day win in Sydney as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.

"They have got a little bit of a gap to the West Indies Test match. I could see pretty much an unchanged bowling line-up for Adelaide. It is probably something we have noticed, they have probably got better across the [Pakistan] series. In particular, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins. And Mitch Starc, I think his ball speed in this game was at its highest," said McDonald.

The Aussie selectors and support staff did not expect this lethal pace trio to be so durable despite a hectic 2023. There were plans to keep pacers Scott Boland and Lance Morris ready for the first Test against Pakistan, anticipating that heavy workload would lead to some soreness and pain for the main pacers. But it never happened, causing Morris and Boland to be send back to the Big Bash League (BBL).

McDonald said that they had planned for reinforcements but all three Tests against Pakistan ending in four days helped.

"In the background, we sort of plan for five-day Test matches, and if we were to go five days it is going to put immense stresses and strain onto the bowling unit. I think we got, not lucky, but in the first Test match in Perth, there was a shortened second innings for the bowling unit," said McDonald.

"That gives you the flexibility to be able to then push them a little bit harder throughout the Pakistan series. And we have always said that we plan in the background. The players want to play every Test match. That is really important. We want to pick the best Test team that we can at any particular time. So it is just striking that balance in how many games they can play without compromising, I suppose their long-term futures," he added.

Cummins had said before the final Test that he hoped that the pace trio could play all seven Tests in the summer. Following the win and his 'Man of the Series' crowning, Cummins expressed that he was feeling really good physically.

"I felt great, body felt really good. There are times you bowl well and wickets do not really follow that. Really happy with how it is all going. Felt fresh, bowled where I wanted to, going through the gears," said Cummins. "By the end of the World Cup, bowlers are always carrying a few niggles, I felt a little bit sore and beaten up but after a few weeks rest I was a bit surprised how I turned up in Perth, I felt really good. After how much cricket we have played to not really have any injuries for our first XI is a credit to the guys but also to the medical staff and coaches and how they have managed us over the last year or two. Could not be happier with how it has all panned out," he concluded.