Australia's fast bowlers appear on track to play a full summer of seven Test matches against Pakistan, West Indies and New Zealand as both coach Andrew McDonald and captain Pat Cummins have been surprised at how strong all three are feeling physically following a huge year of international cricket.
Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, and Mitchell Starc have played 28 Tests together as a fast-bowling trio but it is only the second time in their careers they have managed to play five Tests in a row together.
The previous time came with the help of an 11-month Covid-induced gap between the fourth and the fifth, after playing the full four-match home Test series against India in December 2020 and January 2021, and then the first Test of the Ashes in December 2021.
But in this stretch, they have managed to play the last two Tests of the Ashes series together in July 2023, with all three playing a minimum of four Tests in that series while Cummins and Starc also played the World Test Championship final.
They then played 10 of 11 matches together in the ODI World Cup, with Starc resting for one match prior to the semi-final, before playing unchanged through the Pakistan series. Amid all the talk about who will replace David Warner, McDonald confirmed they are set to go as an unchanged trio into the first Test against West Indies starting on January 17 in Adelaide and could play the next four against West Indies and New Zealand without a break.
"There's nothing to indicate they'll need a rest," McDonald said after the four-day win in Sydney. "They've got a little bit of a gap to the West Indies Test match. I could see pretty much an unchanged bowling line-up for Adelaide.
"It's probably something we've noticed, they've 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."
Australia's selectors and support staff were not expecting the trio to have been so durable coming out of an arduous 2023. There were meticulous plans put in place for reserve quicks Scott Boland and Lance Morris to be ready for the Perth Test in anticipation of one or two of the main three to have come back to the squad with some soreness following the World Cup.
But that scenario never eventuated which has meant both Morris and Boland have been sent back to the BBL to play some cricket, with Boland's game of the BBL season for Melbourne Stars last night his first competitive match since November 19 when he took eight wickets in a Sheffield Shield outing against Queensland.
Morris was also left frustrated that he was only allowed to play four of the first six Shield games for Western Australia and was only able to play one game of club cricket in Perth on restricted overs between his last Shield game on November 17 and his first BBL game of the season on December 20.
McDonald said they had planned for reinforcements to be needed but three four-day Test matches against Pakistan had helped their cause.
"In the background, we sort of plan for five-day Test matches, and if we were to go five days it's going to put immense stresses and strain onto the bowling unit," McDonald said. "I think we got, not lucky, but in the first Test match in Perth, there was a shortened second innings for the bowling unit.
"That gives you the flexibility to be able to then push them a little bit harder throughout the Pakistan series. And we've always said that we plan in the background. The players want to play every Test match. That's really important. We want to pick the best Test team that we can at any particular time. So it's just striking that balance in how many games they can play without compromising, I suppose their long-term futures."
Cummins said before the Sydney Test that he hoped all three could play the full set of seven Tests across the summer. After the win in Sydney, where he was named player of the series, he was surprised at how good he was feeling.
"I felt great, body felt really good," Cummins said. "There are times you bowl well and wickets don't really follow that. Really happy with how it's all going. Felt fresh, bowled where I wanted to, going through the gears.
"By 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've played to not really have any injuries for our first XI is credit to the guys but also the medical staff and coaches and how they've managed us over the last year or two. Couldn't be happier with how it's all panned out."