New Delhi: Australia are mindful of their ageing squad and are keen to begin a transition phase with an eye to remain a dominant force in the future, says head coach Andrew McDonald.
Australia’s average age is around 33 years and stare at a mass exodus in the next few years as they had witnessed in the late 2000s with the departure of Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Justin Langer, Adam Gilchrist among others.
Australia struggled for a while to dominate like they had in the late 1990s and 2000s and McDonald said he doesn’t want such a situation to arise after signing a contract renewal till 2027.
“With Travis Head (in December last year) and Marnus Labuschagne (June) both recently celebrating their 30th birthdays and, with incumbent Cameron Green unavailable for the coming home season after back surgery, Pat Cummins could lead a team that features all 11 players older than 30 if Marcus Harris or Cameron Bancroft gets the nod to open the batting,” McDonald told cricket.com.au.
“People take it back to 2007 when mass players have exited and they’ve struggled to obviously perform at the same level – we’re not beholden to the past,” McDonald told reporters on Thursday.
“I think if you get the selections right on the back of players exiting, then the transition is lot smoother.”
ODIs bridge to Tests
He also suggested that “one-day cricket can be the bridge to Test cricket”, indicating that top Test stars could miss bilateral limited-overs series on at times to manage workload.
As the current Test team has seven players with age between 33 and 37, McDonald sais such measures are necessary for “future proofing” the team.
“We’re big believers that within that – if you want to call it transition – that the older, more experienced players assist those younger players when they come through the change-room,” he said.
“So it’s about making sure that we don’t exit senior players too soon and lose that knowledge within that playing group. That’s incredibly important for us to get that balance right.”
