Calm before storm: Summer precedes unprecedented stretch

When Pat Cummins, Andrew McDonald and George Bailey viewed the final dates for next summer's schedule, there might have been a collective sigh of relief.

Following three straight summers which featured exceptionally tight turnarounds between white-ball series and the start of their home Test seasons, Australia's upcoming 2025-26 Ashes summer will not get underway until well after India have left the country following an extended limited-overs tour.

All-form stars like Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Travis Head and Josh Hazlewood could conceivably play the bulk of the ODIs and T20Is against India and then be fresh for the first Test against England.

It is a sharp contrast to 2022-23 (when a three-ODI series against England was wedged in after the T20 World Cup and finished just a week before the first South Africa Test), 2023-24 (a five-T20I tour of India, coming after a gruelling ODI World Cup, ran all the way into December) and 2024-25 (four days between the end of Pakistan's white-ball tour and the opening Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test).

But unfortunately for McDonald, Bailey and Cummins, the neatly spaced out 2025-26 men's international fixture list appears an outlier, rather than the new norm. In fact, what's lurking beyond this forthcoming summer looks to be more intense than anything that's come before.

Twelve months after this year's Top End series against South Africa (also confirmed in yesterday's fixture announcement) Australia are likely to return to the country's north during mid-2026 to begin a marathon 14-month stretch in which they will play as many as 21 Tests before an ODI World Cup. 

The scheduling of a one-off sesquicentenary anniversary Test against England in March 2027 has squeezed out a two-Test home series against Bangladesh inked into the ICC's Future Tours Program (FTP) during that same window.

Unlike the one-Test, three-T20 series against Afghanistan that was in the original FTP for that winter 2026 window, the Bangladesh series must be played as part of Australia's World Test Championship (WTC) obligations (Afghanistan do not play in the WTC and Cricket Australia has not played bilateral series against them since the Taliban took power). A separate limited-overs tour of Bangladesh must also be slotted into the 2026 winter schedule.

A trip to South Africa for Australia's first Tests there since the infamous 2018 series will follow, before the Aussies host New Zealand for four Tests and then embark on their longest Test tour of India in almost 50 years. After Rohit Sharma's men played five Tests (up from four) Down Under last summer as part of a deal struck between CA and the BCCI, it will be time for Australia to return the favour.

CA's scheduling boss Peter Roach must also ensure the team fits in two visits from England either side of those series; another eight-match white-ball tour through November-December, and then the MCG Test under lights which is set to channel the spirit of the 1977 match that commemorated the century since Test cricket's inaugural fixture in Melbourne in 1877.

It means the home Test series against NZ and the away trip in India look likely to both have minimal gaps between matches. On spin-friendly subcontinental surfaces, that may not be a major issue. On Australia's own turf, where the fast bowlers typically do the bulk of the bowling, it is sure to present a challenge for their ageing champion seamers or less-seasoned replacements.

"What I don't think will be a problem is that they wouldn't be viewed as insignificant series," Roach told cricket.com.au.

"A home Test summer into a huge Border-Gavaskar Trophy tour in India. Then how many people get to play in a rare one-off marquee Test match? People still talk about '77. They will talk about 2027, so I don't get the feeling people will not be wanting to play in it.

"We have busier years and less busy years in terms of white-ball cricket and Test cricket. This is a really busy, heavy year Test-cricket wise. The team's aware of it.

"It's still a long way away. We don't know who's going to be still fit and thriving at that stage … but it isn’t moving, so we've just got to plan well for it and manage the challenge."

But the hectic 2026-27 summer merely marks a little way past the halfway point of this taxing 14-month stretch.

After the one-off Melbourne Test against England, Cummins and many of his teammates will be wanted for a full IPL season, a WTC final if his side qualifies for a third consecutive appearance, a full five-Test Ashes tour and an ODI World Cup – all before the ensuing home summer.

The strong Test focus will also be a hurdle to Australia maintaining their reputation as heavyweights at ICC events. The 2027 tournament in southern Africa will see them gunning to become champions for the sixth time in eight ODI World Cups.

Australia's next one-day title defence looms as possibly their hardest. In the 14 months leading into their seven previous World Cups, they have never played more than 16 Tests.

Australia in 14 months leading into past eight World Cups

2023 - 15 Tests
2019 - 12 Tests
2015 - 13 Tests
2011 - 16 Tests
2007 - 11 Tests
2003 - 14 Tests
1999 - 15 Tests

"I would suggest that the national teams have been very successful at prioritising series and making sure people remain fresh for key series," said Roach.

"There's always a question of what those key series are – everything is important but some clearly need to take priority.

"You would suggest that you will split your white-ball and Test stocks more as time goes on – there will always be some all-format players and we have some champion all-format players presently, but we're likely to have less as time goes on, as it has been with every other country."

Even if whispered plans of a Saudi Arabia-backed franchise T20 competition do not materialise in the coming years, it is the kind of run that could have key players considering whether playing all three international formats is sustainable.

Both Steve Smith and Marcus Stoinis have both given up ODIs in recent months in moves that could prolong their careers in other international formats (Smith in Tests, Stoinis in T20Is) while also allowing them to pursue more domestic T20 opportunities.

The conversation on whether it remains viable to be an all-format player has already been had in other countries.

Before Smith, it was Ben Stokes, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja who all gave up certain formats while continuing in others. Quinton de Kock, Trent Boult and Kane Williamson have done similar in recent years, turning down central contracts to take up domestic T20 deals abroad. Several Australians have declined state deals for similar reasons.

Of the current group of first-picked all-format players, Starc and Hazlewood are the oldest and loom as having big decisions to make in the coming years. Cameron Green is at the other end of his career, but his capability to play in every match he is wanted for will need to be balanced with managing his bowling loads after undergoing major back surgery.

Cummins is younger than Starc and Hazlewood but shoulders the extra responsibility of the captaincy in Tests and ODIs. Head meanwhile could well have been joined by Josh Inglis as an indispensable player across all three formats by 2027. Alex Carey and Marnus Labuschagne are currently entrenched in the two longer forms; Adam Zampa, Glenn Maxwell and Mitch Marsh likewise in the two shorter ones.

Will the former group consider following Smith's path? Will the latter group consider following Stoinis's? By the end of 2027, these questions will undoubtedly be on the minds of Australia's brains trust even more than they are now.