Australia captain Pat Cummins to use South Africa ODIs as springboard for three-Test series

Cummins, who remains Australia’s official ODI captain, has played just two matches in the format since leading the team to the 2023 World Cup with victory over India in Ahmedabad. Steven Smith, who is now retired from ODIs, Mitchell Marsh and Josh Inglis have all captained the one-day side in that period.

Australia will also visit Zimbabwe for a three-match ODI series on September 15, 18 and 20 before heading to South Africa, but Cummins indicated he could miss the Zimbabwe leg of the trip.

“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 said after squaring the Test series against Bangladesh with a two-day win in Mackay. “So I’d imagine it’d be one, two, probably a maximum of three games out of those six.

“We’ll probably all have, I imagine, a week or two off bowling, still do your gym work, and then we’ll start building up for that series. I’ll probably have an extra week here if I don’t play the Zimbabwe [matches].”

Speaking to Fox Cricket in Mackay, Starc and Hazlewood indicated they were also expecting to play some part in the ODIs before the South Africa Tests.

While Cummins acknowledged the Tests as a priority, there is also an element of planning for the 2027 ODI World Cup where the majority of matches will be held in South Africa with other games in Zimbabwe and Namibia. For Australia, that will come after a run of upto 21 Tests in a 12-month period.

Starc has played nine ODIs since the last World Cup, including all three against India at home last season, while Hazlewood has clocked the most among the big three with 11.

Cummins, who said he had a sore toe at times during the Darwin Test, indicated that the quicks had all got through the Bangladesh series unscathed. There was a brief moment where Scott Boland came into contention for the second Test but Australia fielded the same attack across both matches. Dismissing Bangladesh for 64 and 95 in Mackay did not put huge workloads into them.

Following the ODI series against South Africa, which finishes on September 30 in Potchefstroom, Australia will have a two-day practice match at the same venue on October 3 and 4 before heading to Durban for the first Test.

The tour will mark Australia’s first Test series in South Africa since the 2018 ball-tampering scandal although they have twice returned for white-ball series in 2020 and 2023. They had been due to visit for Tests in early 2021 but they were cancelled due to Covid. South Africa beat Australia at Lord’s last year in the World Test Championship final.

“They’re a really strong side,” Cummins said. “We had a big series against them here in Australia a couple of years back and we probably exceeded expectations, played really well, and then they got us back at Lord’s last year and outplayed us there.

“So it’s going to be big, obviously, in their home conditions [and] places we haven’t played Test cricket in for a while. So conditions are always a little bit unknown. Even the difference between Durban to, say, Cape Town can be quite different styles of pitches. It’s going to be great. That’s why I love playing Test cricket. It’s all different conditions, different opponents, different parts of the world. Can’t wait.”

Australia’s ODI squads for the Zimbabwe and South Africa series (as well as A team squads to visit India) are expected to be named next week with the Test squad likely to be announced separately during the early part of September.

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