‘Nothing to indicate they’ll need a rest’, says McDonald over resting Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood

Sydney: Following the 3-0 Test series win over Pakistan, Australia head coach Andrew McDonald said there have been no indications over resting the first-choice fast-bowling trio of captain Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood for the upcoming assignments in the format.

It means that Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins are all set to play in Australia’s first Test against West Indies starting on January 17 in Adelaide, followed by the second Test at The Gabba beginning on January 25 and could play the two-match series in New Zealand in February-March.

“There’s nothing to indicate they’ll need a rest. They’ve 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’s probably something we’ve noticed, they’ve 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 to reporters following the conclusion of the series.

He also revealed that they had planned for reinforcements needed for the trio of Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood in the form of pacers Scott Boland and Lance Morris, but McDonald believes three four-day Test matches against Pakistan meant they weren’t needed.

“In the background, we sort of plan for five-day Test matches, and if we were to go five days it’s 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.

“That gives you the flexibility to be able to then push them a little bit harder throughout the Pakistan series. And we’ve always said that we plan in the background. The players want to play every Test match.

“That’s really important. We want to pick the best Test team that we can at any particular time. So it’s just striking that balance in how many games they can play without compromising, I suppose their long-term futures.”

With David Warner retiring from Tests, McDonald said the hunt for a new opener in his place will have to possess the skill of putting pressure back on the bowler. “There’s not another David Warner out there. The ability to put pressure back onto the bowler all the time – it was a joy to watch in his final innings.”

“That’ll be considered in terms of what we look for in an opener, but it’s more so what we look for in the top seven batters. You can have complementing skillsets within that and how they operate and function.”

“But there’s no doubt you want some players within that order that are able to put pressure back on. We’ve seen Travis Head to do that with great success in the last 12 months or so,” he concluded.

–IANS