Morning glory: How early starts could shift Aussie ODI plans

After conquering the world under lights at the last ODI World Cup, Australia's night owls may have to transmute into early risers in the dress rehearsal for their African title defence next year.

The Aussies are set to field their strongest 50-over teams since lifting the World Cup in Ahmedabad three years ago when they embark on a six-game ODI stretch in Zimbabwe and South Africa, beginning in Harare on Tuesday.

All but one of the coming matches will be day games. Their three ODIs against Zimbabwe all begin at 9.30am at the Harare Sports Club, while the first two ODIs against the Proteas, at Kingsmead in Durban and then the Wanderers in Johannesburg, start at 10am. Those three grounds have all been confirmed as host venues for next year's ICC event.

"There's probably no stronger link than actually playing in the country that the World Cup is going to be in in 12 months' time," coach Andrew McDonald told cricket.com.au ahead of Australia's first ODIs in Zimbabwe in 12 years.

"So it is a really good opportunity … to really formulate how we're going to go about winning a World Cup in 2027 back here in these countries."

Australia's epic run at the 2023 World Cup in India came almost exclusively under lights – a day match against Bangladesh marked one of just three non-floodlit matches in the 48-game tournament – with night dew the major game-to-game tactical consideration. The bulk of the ODIs the Aussies have played since have also had afternoon starts.

The ICC has yet to reveal the fixture for the first men’s World Cup in Africa since 2003. But, from 81 men’s ODIs played since 2022 at the 12 confirmed host venues in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, only 13 have been day-nighters. Australia's only afternoon-start match on their upcoming bilateral tour is the third ODI against South Africa in Potchefstroom, which is not among the World Cup venues.

McDonald conceded the prospect of a day-game-heavy World Cup required a different strategic outlook.

Australia’s aggressive Powerplay approach in 2023, led by David Warner, Travis Head and Mitch Marsh (the latter two who are now entrenched as openers) may need a rethink if inserted on a juicy early-morning pitch. Likewise on the bowling front, new-ball seamers may trump high-pace or more defensive fast bowlers.

"We've got five out of six day games here," said McDonald. "Whether that's the case for the World Cup, we haven't seen the draw or the schedule, but you would assume that there might be a few more day games, depending on the time-zone or opponent that you're playing.

"We don't want to divulge where our thinking's at too much. But you would say that a 9:30am start can create a different challenge, in particular for batters. The selection of your bowling unit might be slightly nuanced based upon that.

"So that is a real consideration. We're anticipating with an early start, if it does go the way that we think it will unfold, it could be more difficult for batting and a bit more seam and swing early in the day.

"We'll be able to gather that information here and get a real look at it 12 months out. It potentially changes the way that you play, how much you may attack a Powerplay with the bat, and what bowling resources you use early versus late."

McDonald has been a strong – and, to this point, lone, at least publicly – advocate for increasing World Cup squad sizes from 15 to 17 players. Whether coincidentally or not, Australia's touring party for their upcoming ODIs will swell to 17 once Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc join for the South African leg. 

But with the ICC showing no indication a rule change is imminent, Australia (and their 13 competitors) must do more with less. It will mean multi-skilled players who can perform a variety of roles will be valuable, particularly following the recent retirements of a trio of adaptable World Cup winners in Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis.

Joel Davies, for instance, has surged into Australia's white-ball plans as a second left-arm spinning allrounder alongside Cooper Connolly despite having batted just once in three career List A matches, his debut only coming in February.

That has squeezed specialist orthodox spinner Matthew Kuhnemann out of the squad, leaving Adam Zampa as the only specialist tweaker. Ollie Peake has notably been practicing his off-breaks in Australia's early training sessions in Harare in recent days too.

The young trio of Connolly, Davies and Peake join a group jostling for middle-order spots including Cameron Green, Matthew Renshaw, Josh Inglis and Alex Carey. Australia are fortunate the latter pair of wicketkeepers both also hold their own as pure batting options.

On the bowling front, death-overs specialist Nathan Ellis performed admirably when thrown the new ball in recent ODI series in Pakistan and Bangladesh in the absence of Cummins, Starc and Josh Hazlewood.

Fellow quicks Xavier Bartlett, Billy Stanlake and Spencer Johnson may need to show a similar versatility if they hope to win a spot for next year's World Cup, though McDonald has admitted they must have contingency plans for one or multiple of the 'Big Three' pacemen not making the tournament given their taxing preceding run of Tests.

Those bowlers' involvement in ensuing ODI series at home against England (in November) and New Zealand (in August next year) will likely be limited and it is not inconceivable Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood may not play any more ODI cricket between now and the World Cup.

"The first part is understanding how you want to play, how you believe that you can win the tournament, and then formulating whatever size that squad is, and getting the right personnel for that," said McDonald.

"We've always had the belief that you need to be able to play three or four different ways across a tournament because of the varying conditions.

"So I think you'll see a little bit of that in the next 12 months as to how we structure up and some of the positions and some of the roles that players do have.

"We want to make sure that we have exhausted all those options leading into the World Cup. It's very rare that you want to be implementing a tactic that you haven't used before at a World Cup.

"That was one of the strengths before the last World Cup – we got it together really, really late because of personnel issues. But we had a really strong belief in how we wanted to win it.

"We're pretty clear at the moment how we want to go about it, and we'll see the conditions and how it sort of stacks up in the next six games. If we do need to pivot, then we've got 12 months to work through that.

"But, at the moment, we're really clear on a good chunk of players – 20-plus players – that we think can that can impact the World Cup. Then we've got obviously Test cricket and player availability, and all that potentially can shift late. So you've got to prepare for those potential moving parts as well."

Qantas tour of Zimbabwe 2026

First ODI: September 15, Harare Sports Club, 5:30pm AEST (9:30am local)

Second ODI: September 18, Harare Sports Club, 5:30pm AEST (9:30am local)

Third ODI: September 20, Harare Sports Club, 5:30pm AEST (9:30am local)

Zimbabwe squad: TBA

Australia squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Xavier Bartlett, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Joel Davies, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Spencer Johnson, Oliver Peake, Matthew Renshaw, Billy Stanlake, Adam Zampa

Qantas tour of South Africa 2026

All matches to be broadcast exclusively in Australia on Kayo and Fox Cricket

First ODI: September 24, Kingsmead Stadium, Durban, 6pm AEST (10am local)

Second ODI: September 27, Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, 6pm AEST (10am local)

Third ODI: September 30, JB Marks Oval, Potchefstroom, 9:30pm AEST (D/N, 1:30pm local)

South Africa ODI squad: Temba Bavuma (c), Ottneil Baartman, Corbin Bosch, Matthew Breetzke, Gerald Coetzee, Quinton de Kock, Tony de Zorzi, Bjorn Fortuin, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kwena Maphaka, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs

Australia ODI squad: Mitchell Marsh, Pat Cummins, Xavier Bartlett, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Joel Davies, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Spencer Johnson, Oliver Peake, Matthew Renshaw, Billy Stanlake, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa

Warm-up match: October 3-4, JB Marks Oval, Potchefstroom, 6pm AEST (10am local)

First Test: October 9-13, Kingsmead Stadium, Durban, 6:30pm AEDT (9:30am local)

Second Test: October 18-22, St George's Park, Gqeberha, 7pm AEDT (10am local)

Third Test: October 27-31, Newlands, Cape Town, 7:30pm AEDT (10:30am local)

Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster