Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood on track to feature in all seven Tests in summer

The Australian pace trio of skipper Pat Cummins Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood looks to be on track to feature in all seven Test matches of the summer against Pakistan West Indies and New Zealand as the coach Andrew McDonald and Cummins are surprised with the physical fitness of the trio after a heavy year featuring the ICC World Test Championship final The Ashes and ICC Cricket World Cup in IndiaCummins Hazlewood and Starc have appeared in 28 Tests together as a pace trio but it is only the second time that they have played five successive Tests together as per ESPNCricinfoTheir previous five successive appearances came in 202021 first playing a home series against India of four Tests from December 2020 to January 2021 then the first Ashes Test in December 2021 This was made possible by a 11month COVID19 induced gap between their fourth and fifth TestAlso ReadlsquoJhulan Goswamirsquos a big part of my lifersquoThis time around the trio featured in last two Tests of the Ashes series and then the whole home series against Pakistan of three Tests Cummins and Starc played in the ICC World Test Championship finalCummins Hazlewood and Starc played 10 out of 11 World Cup fixtures together as well The trio will be playing the first Test against West Indies from January 17 onwards at Adelaide and could also play their next four matches against WI and Kiwis without any break confirmed the coach McDonald Both sides will play two Tests each against the WTC title holdersThere is nothing to indicate they will need a rest McDonald said after the fourday win in Sydney as quoted by ESPNCricinfoThey have got a little bit of a gap to the West Indies Test match I could see pretty much an unchanged bowling lineup for Adelaide It is probably something we have noticed they have probably got better across the Pakistan series In particular Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins And Mitch Starc I think his ball speed in this game was at its highest said McDonaldThe Aussie selectors and support staff did not expect this lethal pace trio to be so durable despite a hectic 2023 There were plans to keep pacers Scott Boland and Lance Morris ready for the first Test against Pakistan anticipating that heavy workload would lead to some soreness and pain for the main pacersBut it never happened causing Morris and Boland to be send back to the Big Bash League BBLMcDonald said that they had planned for reinforcements but all three Tests against Pakistan ending in four days helpedIn the background we sort of plan for fiveday Test matches and if we were to go five days it is going to put immense stresses and strain onto the bowling unit I think we got not lucky but in the first Test match in Perth there was a shortened second innings for the bowling unit said McDonaldThat gives you the flexibility to be able to then push them a little bit harder throughout the Pakistan series And we have always said that we plan in the background The players want to play every Test match That is really important We want to pick the best Test team that we can at any particular time So it is just striking that balance in how many games they can play without compromising I suppose their longterm futures he addedCummins had said before the final Test that he hoped that the pace trio could play all seven Tests in the summer Following the win and his Man of the Series crowning Cummins expressed that he was feeling really good physicallyI felt great body felt really good There are times you bowl well and wickets do not really follow that Really happy with how it is all going Felt fresh bowled where I wanted to going through the gears said CumminsBy the end of the World Cup bowlers are always carrying a few niggles I felt a little bit sore and beaten up but after a few weeks rest I was a bit surprised how I turned up in Perth I felt really good After how much cricket we have played to not really have any injuries for our first XI is a credit to the guys but also to the medical staff and coaches and how they have managed us over the last year or two Could not be happier with how it has all panned out he concludedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever