Australia pacers Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc could play in both of the upcoming T20I series against West Indies and New Zealand. While it was expected that the pacers would be rested after the Test series against Pakistan and West Indies, the Australian selectors have other plans.

The trio has played in all the four Tests of the home summer so far and are set to play in both the T20I as well. The six games against West Indies and New Zealand are Australia’s final T20I assignments before the T20 World Cup in June this year.

None of the three fast-bowlers have had to ball more than 38 overs in a match as all the four Tests ended inside four days. The recently-concluded first Test against West Indies ended in just over two days as the visitors could only manage 188 and 120 runs in two innings. All three pacers are rested for the ODIs against West Indies before they will return to action in the T20Is.

“We’ll give some thought to that,” Australia head coach Andrew McDonald said. “There’ll be some that may play, and there’ll be some that might not play. It’ll be different squads [for each series]. We’ll look to potentially be at full strength for the New Zealand series.

“We’ve got six games before the World Cup. A lot of the World Cup planning is in place at the moment. We’ll try to be as close to full strength for the New Zealand series as possible. The West Indies series is slightly nuanced,” he added.

Australia’s schedule in T20 World Cup 2024:

The T20 World Cup 2024 is scheduled to be played from June 1 to 29 in the Caribbeans and United States of America. Australia are in Group B with defending champions England, Namibia, Scotland and Oman. The team from Down Under will not play any game in the USA. Instead, they’ll play their group matches in Barbados, Antigua and St Lucia.

Australia’s 2024 T20 World Cup group games:

vs Oman, June 5, Barbados
vs England, June 8, Barbados
vs Namibia, June 11, Antigua
vs Scotland, June 15, St Lucia