Australia coach Andrew McDonald says players have big decisions to make about IPL commitments with packed international schedule ahead, latest news

Australia’s men’s cricket coach Andrew McDonald said that the team’s hierarchy and its superstars are willing to upset a few people with their player management decisions in the coming year.

Australia faces a bumper year ahead with next week’s first Test kicking off a stretch of up to 21 Tests, depending on if Pat Cummins’ side qualifies for the World Test Championship final, that culminates with the Ashes in England.

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After hosting Bangladesh in the Top End this month, Australia travel to South Africa and Zimbabwe for three Tests and six ODIs in September and October.

The traditional home summer then consists of three ODIs and five T20s against England before four Tests against New Zealand across November, December and January.

Less than a fortnight after the Sydney Test, the five-Test Border Gavaskar Trophy begins in Nagpur and wraps up in Ahmedabad in early March.

With a possible WTC final in June before the Ashes spans June, July and early August as well as an ODI World Cup in South Africa and Namibia in October and November, the March-April-May period appears to be a crucial resting time for Australia’s globetrotting cricketers.

But, of course, that three-month period is dominated by the IPL and McDonald said some big decisions will need to be made to keep players fresh for the big assignments ahead.

“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.”

McDonald added: “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.

“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.”

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Australia has the opportunity to achieve several legacy defining feats in 2026 and 2027.

Nathan Lyon is the only member of Australia’s current bowling group to have played in a series win in South Africa – the spinner did so in 2014.

While Cummins’ side will be determined to atone for the infamous Sandpapergate tour, and last year’s WTC final defeat, when they head to the Rainbow nation.

In the New Year, Australia’s veterans will then be looking to banish past demons in India, having not won their since 2004.

They will also be eager to go one better in England, have drawn the past two series but not having won in the Old Dart since 2021.

Plus, there is the chance to defend the ODI crown they won in India in 2023.

“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.”

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Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood have all been willing to forgo millions of dollars in the IPL in the past to prioritise being fresh for Australia.

Cummins, Starc and Travis Head sat out the 2023 IPL to focus on his big international workload, while Hazlewood only played the last three games of the tournament for Royal Challengers Bengaluru as a replacement players.

Cameron Green, meanwhile, did go to the IPL that year after the young all-rounder was bought for $3.15 million by Mumbai Indians – last year that figure was topped as Kolkata Knight Riders made him the most expensive overseas player in history with a $4.17 million purchase at auction.

Green looked to have paid the price on the tour of England that followed in 2023, however.

He looked a spent figure as he was eventually dropped for the fifth Test at The Oval off the back of Mitch Marsh’s barnstorming return to Test cricket.

Green was also dropped from the ODI side after just one game at the World Cup, and only played one other to fill in for a resting Glenn Maxwell.

The in-demand 27-year-old faces some big decisions ahead to juggle his commitments.

“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.”