Some Aussies could arrive in the UK only a week before their biggest Test in two years
'Extreme situation' won’t affect WTC final prep, says CA
Australia are confident their World Test Championship final preparation will not be disturbed by the extension of the Indian Premier League's season.
Cricket Australia's high performance boss Ben Oliver today reiterated it would support players through the "extreme situation" that has them weighing up whether to return to India when the lucrative T20 league resumes this weekend.
The Pakistan Super League, which also has a strong Australian contingent led by ex-Test star David Warner, has been tipped to do the same following cease-fire negotiations that appear to have halted India-Pakistan military action that came chillingly close to affecting many players.
Sean Abbott and Ben Dwarshuis were among the Australian representatives who learnt a military base was struck by a missile 20 minutes after their plane had left it, while Australia captain Alyssa Healy has spoken of the fear brought about by "misinformation" during the abandoned IPL match her husband Mitchell Starc was playing in.
"I think each player will have experienced it differently," Oliver told reporters in Brisbane on Tuesday.
"No doubt it was an extreme situation, and we feel it's really appropriate to support their individual experience and their individual decision as they work through that over the coming days."
Oliver said players would work through their decisions "across the course of the next 24 or 48 hours".
Healy was at Dharamsala's Himachal Pradesh Stadium, around 200km from the troubled Kashmir region, when Delhi Capitals' match against Punjab Kings was abandoned due to what officials announced as a power outage.
"It was a surreal experience. All of a sudden a couple of the light towers went out and we were just sitting there up the top waiting," Healy told the Willow Talk podcast.
"I said to Mitch, 'What’s going on?' He said the town 60km away had just been smacked by some of the missiles so there was a complete blackout in the area. That’s why the lights were off because the Dharamsala stadium was like a beacon at that point in time.
"All of a sudden we’re crammed into vans and off we go back to the hotel. There was madness ... we didn’t have a whole heap of information as to what was going on.
"That's probably been the scariest part of this whole situation is the misinformation. Quite close to what’s being fought over, but we were assured everything was fine, 'Everything is OK. It’s miles away, the game will go ahead and everything will be fine'.
"At the end of the day they evacuated the stadium as a precaution, which was fine, but it was probably a little bit too close for comfort."
The 17 remaining IPL games (13 regular-season matches, four playoff matches) will now be played in six cities: Bengaluru, Jaipur, Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
Five members of Australia's WTC final squad named today hold IPL contracts. Three – Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Josh Inglis – could remain in India until as late as a week before the WTC final against South Africa in London if they elect to return to the IPL.
Sunrisers Hyderabad are led by Test skipper Pat Cummins, coached by Australia staffer Daniel Vettori and count Travis Head as their star batter, but the franchise is out of playoff contention.
Hyderabad’s season will finish on May 25, the original date for the IPL final, nine days earlier than the revised date of June 3.
"We don't expect any material impact on the preparation for the World Test Championship (final)," said Oliver.
"We've got players obviously preparing here in Australia, we've got players preparing around the world before they then assemble in the UK. But we'll work through that individually with players over the coming days."
It is not an unprecedented situation for coach Andrew McDonald and selection chief George Bailey.
That pair, along with captain Cummins, were at the helm two years ago when key allrounder Cameron Green had only a week to reacquaint himself with the red ball after more than two months of the IPL's crash-and-bash.
A deep playoff run for Starc's Delhi Capitals, Hazlewood's Royal Challengers Bengaluru or Inglis' Punjab Kings that takes one or two of those sides to the IPL decider is far from an ideal situation for what is, on paper, Australia's biggest Test match in two years.
The experience of Starc and Hazlewood should leave them well equipped to make the quick transition. But asking Inglis to open the batting against Kagiso Rabada at Lord's, flagged as a possibility by Bailey on Tuesday, could be a tougher ask.
The fitness of Starc and Hazlewood – the latter has been dealing with a shoulder niggle – could have knock-on effects for the rest of the WTC final XI. Green is poised to make his Test return as a batter only, but allrounder Beau Webster could hold his spot to shore up the bowling.
"(We are) looking into that from a data point of view. That'll become clearer once we get to get to the UK and get eyes on those fast bowlers that have been playing in India," Bailey said today.
"They're all working pretty hard behind the scenes to make sure they start to ramp up their loads a little bit, but it will be a slightly different preparation."
In addition to Inglis, Punjab have four other Aussies on their books – Marcus Stoinis, Mitch Owen, Aaron Hardie and Xavier Bartlett – while Mitch Marsh's Lucknow Super Giants and Spencer Johnson's Kolkata Knight Riders are both outside chances of qualifying for the finals.
Tim David (RCB) and Jake Fraser-McGurk (Delhi) are the other Australians in playoff contention, but Nathan Ellis' Chennai Super Kings are not.
World Test Championship Final
June 11-15: South Africa v Australia, Lord's
Broadcast exclusively on Prime Video in Australia. Sign up here for a 30-day free trial
Australians at IPL 2025
Chennai Super Kings: Nathan Ellis ($365k)
Delhi Capitals: Mitch Starc ($2.15m), Jake Fraser-McGurk ($1.65m)
Kolkata Knight Riders: Spencer Johnson ($510k)
Lucknow Super Giants: Justin Langer (coach), Mitch Marsh ($623k)
Punjab Kings: Ricky Ponting (coach), Marcus Stoinis ($2m), Glenn Maxwell ($770k), Mitch Owen ($550k), Josh Inglis ($475k), Aaron Hardie ($228k), Xavier Bartlett ($146k)
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Josh Hazlewood ($2.29m), Tim David ($547k)
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Pat Cummins ($3.7m), Travis Head ($1.2m), Adam Zampa ($440k)
2025 IPL standings
| Team | M | W | L | T | N/R | NRR | Ded. | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1
KXI
|
14 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0.372 | 0 | 19 |
|
2
RCB
|
14 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0.301 | 0 | 19 |
|
3
GUT
|
14 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0.254 | 0 | 18 |
|
4
MI
|
14 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1.142 | 0 | 16 |
|
5
DEL
|
14 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0.011 | 0 | 15 |
|
6
SUN
|
14 | 6 | 7 | 0 | 1 | -0.241 | 0 | 13 |
|
7
LSG
|
14 | 6 | 8 | 0 | 0 | -0.376 | 0 | 12 |
|
8
KKR
|
14 | 5 | 7 | 0 | 2 | -0.305 | 0 | 12 |
|
9
RAJ
|
14 | 4 | 10 | 0 | 0 | -0.549 | 0 | 8 |
|
10
CSK
|
14 | 4 | 10 | 0 | 0 | -0.647 | 0 | 8 |
M: Matches played
W: Wins
L: Losses
T: Ties
N/R: No results
NRR: Net Run Rate
Ded.: Deductions
PTS: Total points