It has perhaps been forgotten with Australia’s marathon year of Test cricket ahead that the ODI team’s bid to defend their World Cup crown is truly about to begin.
Before the blockbuster Test series against South Africa begins in Durban on October 9, Australia will play three ODIs against the Proteas and their African neighbours Zimbabwe starting September 15.
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The tour has a touch of an old school throwback about it.
It is slightly rare in the modern era for a touring team to mix white ball and red ball.
Unlike bygone Australian summers when an ODI tri-series and one, or maybe a few, T20s would follow, or be intertwined with, a Test series, England’s white ball squad will hit these shores in November, a year after their Test counterparts did so for the Ashes.
So, there is something nostalgic about two nations giving their fans the chance to ready themselves for the main course with some tasty appetisers.
Especially because in almost a year’s time those appetisers will become the main course.
Australia certainly wants to win in South Africa after the embarrassment of Sandpapergate when it last visited the Rainbow Nation for Test matches.
Pat Cummins’ men definitely want to win Test series in India and England for the first time in more than two decades, as well as a second World Test Championship final, too.
But they also really badly want to defend the World Cup crown they so famously won in Ahmedabad three years ago.
Australia has already played six ODIs this year, but the preparation for next October and November’s global showpiece in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia truly starts now with Australia’s selectors set to name its next ODI squad early next week.
The slow, low and spinning surfaces of Pakistan and Bangladesh are foreign to what they expect to be confronted with in Southern Africa – where they are several questions to be answered before the World Cup campaign begins.
Hussey backs under-fire star in batting | 02:48
WHO FILLS THE STEVE SMITH-SIZED HOLE?
Barring injury or a dramatic drop off in form, Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh will open the batting together in the World Cup.
Head, who smashed an unforgettable century in the 2023 final against India, has not played an ODI since last year due to workload management but there is no question about his place in the side.
Since coming back from a broke hand midway through the World Cup three years ago, the left hander has smashed four ODI tons in 21 innings and averaged 49.63 and operated at a blistering strike rate of 122.46.
Marsh, meanwhile, moved up to open regularly from No.3 after David Warner’s retirement.
He has also been essentially the team’s full-time skipper with Cummins appearing infrequently in 50-over cricket.
The added responsibility has proven no burden as Marsh was recently named Australia’s ODI player of the year.
Like Head, he has not played an ODI this year, but in 2025, Marsh plundered 304 runs at 60.80, including a century against South Africa in a run fest where Head and Cameron Green also smashed hundreds.
Where things get interesting is the No.3 position.
Since Steve Smith retired following last year’s Champions Trophy semi-final defeat to India, Australia has trialled Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Matt Short, Josh Inglis and Matt Renshaw at first drop, in only 12 matches.
Labuschagne and Short had fallen out of favour earlier this year, only for injuries leading to them given a reprieve in the subcontinent.
Renshaw may be on the chopping block too, despite his recall to the Test side, having been dismissed for 0, 0 and 2 in Bangladesh after scores of 4, 43, and 61 in Pakistan.
While Inglis captained the team in Pakistan and Bangladesh and is a walk-up starter with the gloves.
And Green is a certainty too with a career average of 41.13 from 37 ODIs that puts him only behind Head (43.57) among current players.
But another name might be about to be added to the No.3 merry-go-round.
Cooper Connolly scored his maiden ODI century in Australia’s most recent outing in Bangladesh.
The 23-year-old’s match-winning 149 from 134 balls came off the back of a breakout IPL campaign for the Ricky Ponting coached Punjab Kings.
It also came from the top of the order in Marsh and Head’s absence.
But the star duo’s likely return might mean Connolly slides down a place or makes his home in the middle order.
Former Australian captain Alyssa Healy believes the West Australian’s emergence on the international white-ball scene may even propel him back into Test calculations.
“Cooper probably springs to mind as a young player that’s making his way on the scene,” Healy told foxsports.com.au.
“And I think, you know, there’s a real possibility that if he has some really good white-ball cricket under his belt in the middle order, that, you know, that Test selection might look a little bit more enticing as well.
“He can add that left-arm spin option to that side as a batting and bowling all-rounder.”
Or Australia’s selectors could look to one of the nation’s forgotten men in New South Wales’ Kurtis Patterson.
The 33-year-old, who scored 114 not out against Sri Lanka in Canberra in 2019 but has never played for Australia again, is keen to add to his two Test caps.
But he may also provide a good option in an ODI cricket after a prolific campaign that guided NSW to the Dean Jones Trophy last summer.
Patterson had the best average of any of the Sheffield Shield’s top ten leading run scores and he dominated the 50-over competition.
The left-hander amassed 565 runs at 113 with a strike rate of 96.58, including three centuries and three fifties in eight innings.
“I’ve certainly turned a corner and got a lot more consistent with how I bat,” Patterson told Fox Sports News earlier this week.
“There’s been some results that have followed that, which is nice.”
“My batting feels like it’s in a nice place,” he added.
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Patterson eyes Test recall | 02:53
WHO FILLS THE GLENN MAXWELL-SIZED HOLE?
Like Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell retired after last year’s Champions Trophy.
But Australia’s World Cup hero with his insane unbeaten double century against Afghanistan has left an arguably bigger hole, that has been harder to fill.
Australia boasts a plethora of all-round options with Green, Head, Labuschagne, Renshaw, Short and Connolly all chipping in to get through the ten or more overs needed to contemplate the frontline bowlers.
It is firepower with the bat at No.6 and No.7 where Australia has been unable to find their Maxwell replacement as a finisher.
Like the No.3 position, those middle order roles have been revolving door.
Green, Connolly, Labuschagne, Renshaw, Test gloveman Alex Carey, teenage talent Oliver Peake, Big Bash blaster Mitch Owen and Western Australia captain Aaron Hardie have all been trialled at No.6 and No.7 since Maxwell’s retirement.
Inglis was Maxwell’s sidekick at the back end of innings at the last World Cup but has moved up the order in recent years – most notably with his unbeaten Champions Trophy century against England to chase down a target of 352.
Instead, Australian coach Andrew McDonald hallmarked Green – who was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders for a record $4.17 million in the last IPL – to be their most devastating power hitter in an interview earlier this year.
Although Green’s success in the recent Test series against Bangladesh was built off a return to a more patient approach, which may create a delicate balancing act between formats.
“It’s really where we position him and what role we want him to play, because I think he’s got the ability to really play high up the order and low,” McDonald said in May.
“He does have some power, we saw in that Top End series last year against South Africa, his ability to finish off that innings in the absence of Glenn Maxwell. So, we had that conversation.
“We keep these things open – experiment is not the right word – but we’ll look at different ways to play in the journey to the 2027 World Cup and where he fits exactly in that.
“We’ve got some options there because of his range of skills. Definitely the bowling is a big part of that. The fifth bowler … that can be an exposure point for any team.
“We’ve always gone with four frontline (bowlers) and then the all-rounders pick that (fifth bowler’s load) up. So, I feel like he has a big part to play with the ball as well.
“The more bowling he gets under his belt, there’s improvement there, so a good sign is on the back of where he’s been as well. This IPL, the skills are coming back, the white-ball skills in particular off the back of the surgery he’s had.”
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WILL THE BIG THREE GET THERE?
The first big splash Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood made together in international cricket was to win a World Cup at the MCG.
Cummins missed out on selection in the final with Mitchell Johnson and player of the match James Faulkner preferred but the then 21-year-old featured earlier in the tournament.
Australia’s Big Three were all front and centre in Ahmedabad in 2023 with Cummins lifting the trophy as captain.
Now, once they get through their chock-a-block Test schedule, Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood want another shot at glory – the latter two have the chance to join Adam Gilchirst, Ricky Ponting and Glenn McGrath with in the three-time World Cup winners club.
Following their two-day victory against Bangladesh, all three of Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood said they would end their lengthy ODI absences in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
They all suggested that they will not play all six games but will tune-up for the Test series with some white-ball outings.
“I think I’ll be part of at least some of it. I’m not sure I should say this, but think the focus is on the Test series. So, a lot of the white-ball [series], and how we play that, would be with an eye to the red ball,” Cummins, who last played an ODI in 2024 and played just two since the last World Cup, clarified in his press conference.
“So, I’d imagine it’d be one, two, probably a maximum of three games out of those six.”
Such an approach will likely see a combination Nathan Ellis, Xavier Bartlett, Ben Dwarshuis and Riley Meredith, who have all featured in the ODI team this year, be given opportunities.
But without being disrespectful to Australia’s other white-ball seamers, come World Cup time, barring injury, there will be no doubt over the make-up of the Australian attack.
Leg spinner Adam Zampa will be joined by Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood.
Australia v Bangladesh D2 T2 Highlights | 15:47
“Well, I think from a bowling perspective, those guys I know are wanting to be a part of that World Cup in 2027,” former Australian captain Alyssa Healy told foxsports.com.au
“So I think we’ll see the big boys play definitely in South Africa at one point or another to get themselves prepped for the Test matches, but to also get some white-ball under their belt.
“So, I think that we’ll see, you know, a pretty full-strength XI in terms of the bowling attack.
“What the batting makeup is, I’m not really sure.
“There’s been a lot of change around that white-ball team over the last few years and sort of blooding new players and giving young players opportunities.
“So, I think no doubt they’ll have the 2027 World Cup in mind more so than the Test matches.
“They’ll probably have put a side together that they’re looking at for next year.
“It’ll be interesting to see what that does look like come game one.”
FIXTURES
Zimbabwe series
1st ODI – Zimbabwe v Australia, Harare, 15 September (5.30pm AEST start)
2nd ODI – Zimbabwe v Australia, Harare, 18 September (5.30pm AEST start)
3rd ODI – Zimbabwe v Australia, Harare, 20 September (5.30pm AEST start)
South Africa series
1st ODI – South Africa v Australia, Durban, 24 September (6pm AEST start)
2nd ODI – South Africa v Australia, Johannesburg, 27 September (6pm AEST start)
3rd ODI – South Africa v Australia, Potchefstroom, 30 September (9.30pm AEST start)
