In that tournament, Australia played 11 matches including nine group games, a semi-final and a final. The winner of the 2027 event will have to play at least 13 matches including five group games, six Super 7 games, a semi-final and final. There is a possibility the winner could have to play 15 if one of the bottom three ranked teams who play the two-match ‘super series’ to start the tournament is able to progress to the final.

Australia have long argued for larger squad sizes at World Cups having managed injury concerns within their squad at the 2019 and 2023 editions as well the 2022, 2024 and 2026 T20 World Cups.

Speaking to SEN radio in Australia on Wednesday, McDonald reiterated his stance that teams should have larger squads given they will play more games in the 2027 edition in a tournament that will be played in the same time span as the 2023 version.

“One of the big things from my perspective is if it’s going to be your pinnacle event, what do your squad sizes look like?” McDonald said. “We had the dilemma of what it looked like having a 15-player squad for the last World Cup, and I think New Zealand were in the same boat where we had a couple of injuries, Travis Head been the most notable one, and I think Kane Williamson and a couple of others for New Zealand, where you end up with sort of 12-13 players to select from early on in your tournament, and you’re trying to carry those other players through the early rounds, and you’re not able to play potentially the way that you want to play, or structure up the way that you think you need to, and in particular in countries where you in the north or the south or the east or the west, the conditions change quite significantly.”

Australia are wary of what their squad might look like fitness-wise by the start of the 2027 World Cup as they are set to play 20, possibly 21 Tests, in the 14 months prior to the tournament starting, which includes five-Test tours of India and England in the first seven months of 2027. ODI skipper Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Cameron Green, Marnus Labuschagne and Alex Carey are likely to play a majority, if not all, of those Tests as well as the ODI World Cup while Josh Inglis and Matt Renshaw may feature on a number of Test tours in that time as well some other bilateral white-ball cricket ahead of the World Cup. Green is the only one of those players under 30 while the quicks have all had injury issues over the past two years with none of them playing in either the 2025 Champions Trophy or the 2026 T20 World Cup.

McDonald urged the ICC to consider squad sizes of 17, citing the argument that the FIFA World Cup allowed for squad sizes of 26 for a sport with only 11 on the field and Spain playing only eight matches to win the tournament.

“My push within it, any time you’re playing more games in the same period of time, you don’t want it to be attritional,” McDonald said.

“You want the best players to be available. So, there should be a conversation around – yep, that’s great, you’ve landed at that, okay, what about the squad sizes?

“This is going to be a pinnacle event. I think there’s an argument to say, great, you’ve put more games in front of us, give us larger squads, allow us to play the way that we need to play within those conditions, and then also you’ve got the ability to carry those potential stars of the game that are under injury clouds leading in because the cricket leading into the World Cup is demanding, so you’re going to have some people that potentially are 50-50 at that point in time.

“So let’s carry the best players in there. Give us larger squads to be able to navigate through the early part, and then hopefully the pinnacle event has the best players playing, rather than being ruled out early on due to injury and the attritional nature of a World Cup.”

The ICC is expected to stick with 15-person squads, while ensuring the schedule continues to allow minimum two-day breaks for every team between their matches.

McDonald also believes the Associate nations have been hard done by after the ICC announced that only 14 teams would play in the World Cup, with three of them needing to play a group of three round robin ‘super series’ for the 12th spot in the group phase.

“It’s an interesting structure to a tournament,” McDonald said. “I think the Associate nations have probably been penalised a little bit in that. I think there was a, not a perception, but a direction potentially from the ICC that there was going to be more Associate nations at this 50-over World Cup, which we’ve seen the growth of the Associate nations within the T20 landscape, which I think has been beneficial for cricket.”