The Australian team management is willing to consider giving rest to their fast-bowling trio of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood for the ODI series against India to manage their workload in the hectic international calendar. Cummins has been Australia’s top performer with both the ball and the bat in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne and coach Justin Langer insisted that it’s a great selection “conundrum” for the hosts for the ODI series which begins in Sydney on January 12.
The year 2019 is going to be very busy for the Australians and hence, Langer insisted that they need to keep their players fit and fresh as they will be playing World Cup and the Ashes series back-to-back. Hinting about the rest of Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood for the ODI series against India, as quoted in “The Sydney Herald”, Langer said, “It’s the great conundrum for us, really, how we manage our bowlers. For example, we might not play them in the next three one-dayers so they’re ready for the next two (Tests) to keep them fresh.”
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The Australian coach further elaborated, “He (Cummins) has been brilliant, but then – as soon as we do that they want to play and also then everyone else would be on our back saying: ‘Why aren’t they playing every single game?’ But if you play every game – we’ve also got a World Cup and Ashes next year – we want him fresh for those things.”
Cummins has taken 14 wickets at an average of 20.07 in the Test series against India so far in the first three matches and earlier this year, he missed the ODI series in England and the two Tests against Pakistan in the UAE because of the injuries. He s one of several Australian cricketers, who will not feature in the 2019 IPL because of the hectic international scheduling.
Talking about the same, Langer said, “There might be times when it’s a really good thing for them to be playing IPL. But there’s so much cricket now. The players individually – and us as management – have to make sure we get the balance right so everyone is happy and playing cricket. So getting that management right and staying true to the management, so we can have him (Cummins) fit and firing – we’ve got to be strong with that because there’s got to be a lot of people with different opinions as to whether they should play every game.”
The Australian coach also expressed that they know it’s really hard to play all year around because the players need to keep their bodies as fresh and strong (as possible) and then be bowling at the level they want the players to be at.
