Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Marsh are all fit for the IPL despite missing the Champions Trophy and are among 15 Australians heading to India
Alex Malcolm17-Mar-20253:38
Who should be SRH’s fourth overseas player?
Pat CumminsAustralia’s Test skipper returns to lead Sunrisers Hyderabad again after being retained by the franchise and taking a 12.2% pay-cut after being the second-most expensive buy at the 2024 mini auction. He’s still set to earn approximately AUD$3.7 million. Cummins missed the Sri Lanka Test tour and the Champions Trophy due to the birth of his second child and an ongoing ankle issue but he declared himself fully fit in a recent interview with ESPNcricinfo. His leadership was hailed by all who played under him last season. From an Australian perspective, the selectors will be praying he gets through the IPL season unscathed and not too fatigued ahead of the WTC final in June.Travis HeadFatigue will be a major concern for Head as he returns to Sunrisers, having been retained for AUD$1.2 million, following his blockbuster season as one half of the Travishek duo. Unlike Cummins, Head played both Tests and one of the two ODIs in Sri Lanka as well as the Champions Trophy after he was the leading run-scorer in the Border-Gavaskar series. He is also going to be a key figure in the WTC final in June having been Player of the Match in the last one. Australia’s selectors will also hope he gets through unscathed. Head was carefully managed last year by head coach Daniel Vettori, who is also Australia’s bowling coach and could spend a decent chunk of the season playing as an Impact Sub meaning he will scarcely have to field.Related
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Adam ZampaZampa is one of the best T20 spinners in the world but has not enjoyed much success at the IPL. It has been difficult for him to get a game as one of four overseas players when so many domestic spinners are available and franchises have prioritised playing overseas allrounders and fast bowlers. He has only played a maximum of six games in any season he’s played at his previous three franchises in Rising Pune Supergiants, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Rajasthan Royals. Sunrisers bought him for AUD$440000, with Vettori no doubt an influential figure in his recruitment. But Sunrisers also have local legspinner Rahul Chahar on their list. With Cummins, Head and Heinrich Klaasen locked into the XII most games there will only be one overseas slot available for Zampa to fit into. Conditions may dictate whether he plays alongside Chahar, instead of him or misses out altogether. But he has a much better chance of playing a high proportion of games in this Sunrisers set-up than he has at his previous franchises.Can Jake Fraser-McGurk fire again for Dehli Capitals?•Associated PressJake Fraser-McGurkCan Jake Fraser-McGurk avoid the second year blues? He took the IPL by storm last season. He had the second highest strike-rate for the tournament, smashing 330 runs in nine innings at 234.04, with four half-centuries after being picked up by Delhi as an injury replacement. The franchise did not retain him. They instead repurchased him at the auction for AUD$1.65 million. Only Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Marcus Stoinis cost more among Australians at the auction. Fraser-McGurk though enters this season as a marked man coming off a lean period. He had very poor BBL, even with his last innings of 95 off 46 included. He has also struggled in most of his 12 international white-ball innings for Australia since his breakout IPL to the point where he was overlooked for the Champions Trophy semi-final when Matt Short was injured. Capitals will expect big things. He thrived in the pristine batting conditions at Arun Jaitley Stadium last year. But teams will know exactly how to bowl to him this time around.Mitchell StarcDespite being player of the match in the qualifying final and the final to help Kolkata Knight Riders win IPL 2024, Starc was not retained by KKR which was in part understandable given they had paid a record price for him at the 2024 auction. Capitals pounced at the 2025 auction, outlaying AUD$2.15 million for him. KL Rahul was the only player who cost Capitals more. They will depend a lot on Starc’s strike power and experience as Capitals are light on in the fast bowling department and have lost overseas batter Harry Brook. That will make Australia’s selectors nervous as he looks set to play every IPL game ahead of the WTC final. He is durable however and the ankle issue that kept him out of the Champions Trophy was minor, with the mental and physical freshen-up clearly very valuable.Josh Hazlewood returns to RCB•BCCIJosh HazlewoodHazlewood returns to Royal Challengers Bangalore as the most expensive purchase among the Australians at the auction, at a cost of $AUD2.29 million, having missed last year’s IPL. In 2022 he had an outstanding IPL for RCB taking 20 wickets at a strike-rate of 13.90. But since then he has been injury-plagued and comes in off a summer where he suffered two calf injuries and a side strain. The second calf injury turned into a hip niggle that kept him out of the Champions Trophy. He has been declared fully fit for the IPL by CA but it was a lengthy process to get him to the start line. There will be nerves among Australia’s selectors and CA medical staff about how he will handle a full IPL before the WTC final.Tim DavidIPL 2025 looms a big one for Tim David. His stocks have dwindled as a sought-after power-hitter on the franchise circuit. He was pushed to the margins by Mumbai Indians last year and was bought for a third of his 2022 price when RCB secured him for $AUD547000. He had a very good BBL for Hobart Hurricanes and was a key factor in them winning their maiden title. He was actually used higher up the order at times, including walking out at No.5 in the seventh over against Sydney Thunder and smashing an unbeaten 68 from 38 in a successful chase. How much he will play though will depend on how RCB sets up. They have lacked middle to lower order power in recent times and he fills that hole but he will be fighting for a spot with Liam Livingstone and Jacob Bethall who both can bowl some key overs.Mitchell MarshThere will be a lot of eyes on Marsh’s return from injury at his new franchise Lucknow Super Giants under former coach Justin Langer. He was bought by LSG for AUD$623000 but that purchase was made in November before a serious decline in form saw him lose his spot in Australia’s Test team by the fifth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and miss the Champions Trophy with a back injury. The injury has settled enough to allow him to play with LSG as a batter-only but he is far from fully fit having only returned to batting in recent weeks. He will likely be used as an impact player at the top of the order and then won’t have to field. This will be his ninth IPL at his sixth franchise. He has never played more than nine games in a season and has only played more than five in three of his previous eight seasons. His 2024 IPL ended after four games due to a hamstring injury.Glenn Maxwell returns to Punjab Kings for his third stint•BCCIGlenn MaxwellGlenn Maxwell returns to Punjab Kings for his third stint. Maxwell and Punjab have been intertwined in a roller-coaster on again off again relationship since 2014 when he was player of the tournament in his first season there. He wrote in his recent autobiography that his 2017 season as captain was a disaster due to a big falling out with Virender Sehwag. In his third stint in 2020 he scored 108 runs at a strike-rate of 101.88 and failed to hit a six. He returns after a shocking 2024 IPL where he scored 52 runs in nine innings and essentially dropped himself from the RCB line-up. But Ricky Ponting is the new Punjab coach and has long had faith in Maxwell’s ability after bringing him to Delhi in 2018. He is coming off a BBL season where he was equal player of the tournament and he played one excellent cameo at the Champions Trophy but only batted twice.Marcus StoinisAnother key part of Ponting’s Australian cartel at Punjab, Stoinis was an expensive purchase at the auction at AUD$2 million. He has set himself for a big IPL, prioritising it over ODI cricket after retiring from the format ahead of the Champions Trophy when he was set to be needed in Australia’s tilt. He suffered a hamstring niggle in the SA20 but should be fit having had a six full weeks off. He’s still playing excellent T20 cricket. He made a stunning century for LSG last season, was one of Australia’s best batters in a dismal T20 World Cup campaign and smashed 61 not out off 27 balls in his last T20I innings against Pakistan in November.Josh Inglis is one of the form players in the world•Associated PressJosh InglisInglis comes into his first IPL as one of the most in-form batters in the world. He made his maiden ODI century in the Champions Trophy to help Australia chase 352 against England not long after posting a Test century on debut in Galle. Those two efforts saw him join and elite group of Australians with international centuries in all three forms with one of his two T20I centuries coming in India in 2023 against a group of IPL bowlers which included new teammate Arshdeep Singh. Ponting faces a challenge of finding a spot for him in the XI as either a specialist batter or a wicketkeeper depending on his all-round and fast bowling needs given he also has Maxwell, Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen and Lockie Ferguson in his squad.Aaron HardieGiven the overseas depth at Punjab, Aaron Hardie looks very unlikely to play much in his first IPL at Punjab. His stocks were rising in 2024 on the back of a couple of strong BBL campaigns and some impressive early showings for Australia in both limited-overs forms, with Punjab picking him up for AUD$228000. But his 2024-25 Australian summer was relatively lean. He only bowled in one BBL game in order to settle a quad issue prior to the Champions Trophy but he was not called in at all in the tournament as Australia did not play a seam-bowling allrounder.Xavier BartlettBartlett finds himself in a similar spot to Hardie. He was purchased at the auction by Punjab for just AUD$146000 when his stocks were extremely high in November after a sensational 2023-24 BBL and an impressive start to his ODI and T20I career. But he had a tough BBL campaign coming off a serious side strain and was never considered for the Champions Trophy despite Australia having a huge injury toll among their quicks. He arrives in India having played four first-class games in the last five weeks and just one white-ball List A game.Nathan Ellis will play for CSK•BCCINathan EllisThe Hobart Hurricanes title-winning skipper looks to be a very shrewd purchase by Chennai Super Kings for just AUD$365000. He spent four seasons at Punjab Kings but only played one game last season and looked to be severely underplayed. He continues to impress at every opportunity for Australia and was arguably their best bowler at the Champions Trophy in the absence of the big three. He might be a conditions dependent selection for CSK early in the season but it would not be a surprise if that changes after some good performances.Spencer JohnsonKKR filled the void left by not retaining Starc with another left-arm Australia quick in Johnson who cost a fraction of Starc’s price at AUD$510000. Whether Johnson can win them a title with finals performances the equal of Starc’s remains to be seen. He has done it in the BBL for Brisbane Heat but he is yet to work out how to translate that success on Indian pitches where his height and pace is nullified somewhat. He only played five matches for Gujurat Titans in the 2024 season. He took a couple of wickets against Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy but was squeezed out of Australia’s line-up for the semi-final when they opted to play two spinnners.