Australia’s pace bowling depth is often talked about, and for good reason, but is yet to be tested. The list of injuries and absentees during the limited-overs tour of Great Britain has become a long one.

“A lot of our priorities will be built around that,” Australia coach Andrew McDonald said. Sen Last week “You’ll see that come out with our player management. We’ll be paying a lot of attention to who does what in terms of the (Sheffield) Shield cricket coming up in the summer to make sure that So they are ready for this first Test match.”

Starc will be a part of the ODI series in England but will be cautious in the matches. Cummins has stayed home to work on strength and conditioning. It would be surprising if Hazlewood played more than three ODIs with the series taking place in just 11 days, although the washed-out game in Manchester allowed for some extra time.

“There aren’t many breaks in the calendar unless you build one,” Cummins said of missing England’s tour last month. “The medical staff and the coaches and everybody thought it was a good opportunity for my body to bowl for a month or so, and then be ready and hopefully in as good a position as possible for the five Tests. will be.”

The long list of injuries surrounding Australia’s pace bowlers is a reminder of the incredible resilience of both Cummins, Starc and, more recently, Hazlewood, but also that it won’t take long for the best plans to unfold. Unaided by any of the five-day Tests last season, he also played throughout the ODI World Cup against Pakistan, West Indies and New Zealand, except for one game in which Starc was rested. was

Cummins has only played one Test since 2018 due to injury. Others have been due to covid and compassionate leave. Starc was ruled out of three consecutive games against South Africa and India in early 2023 with a finger injury and the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston, but he has been almost as durable, often with various injuries. Bowling through pain. Meanwhile, Hazlewood has emerged from a two-year spell between 2021-2023 where he played just three Tests to keep himself on the park, apart from being rested at Headingley in last year’s Ashes.

Even first reserve, Boland, who boasts a domestic Test average of 12.21, expected an opening to emerge somewhere last season. “I was expecting to play at some stage,” he said cricket.com.au. “Coaches and selectors were saying, ‘Maybe you’ll get a chance to go at some stage, so be prepared’.

“It’s tough, especially when my mindset is ‘it’s seven Tests, I’ll get a crack at some stage’. But (the big three) are just so resilient and they’ve kept bowling teams out quickly, That they just don’t need that much of a break.”

At the moment, injuries continue to be a source of frustration for those involved in the England tour, and there is a jogging action for the selectors to fill the void, rather than a concern for the India series, but Australia K’s bowling stock faced such depth. A clear summer could still be experienced.