Where to next for Australia's T20 cricket?

SYDNEY Web Desk) - As the T20 World Cup enters its final stages, Australia watch from home and there are significant questions to answer out of this ahead of a big T20 year in 2028 which will feature the Olympics and a home World Cup.

How does Australia build a team to challenge for those titles over the next two-and-a-half years, given they have not made a semi-final in each of the last three World Cups, and they have 20, possibly 21, Tests and an ODI World Cup to play in the next 18 months?

Where T20 cricket sits in Australia's list of priorities has been a topic of debate in the aftermath to the losses to Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka.

The team itself is understood to be hurting badly after the group stage exit. The notion that they don't care about T20 cricket, or the T20 World Cup, has been strongly rebuked both privately and publicly.

An Argus-style review would be an overreaction. But it would be irresponsible not to investigate the failures thoroughly and cast a critical eye across Australia's T20 approach, which selectors and coaching staff are already doing as part of their normal processes following every series.

The failings in this case are clear. They had a group of batters out of form and an attack that lacked strike weapons. That they could not chase down 170 against a Zimbabwe attack that gave up 178, 254 and 256 in their next three games, nor defend 181 against a Sri Lanka batting line-up that posted 95 and 107 for 8 in their first two Super Eight outings showcases a collective failure that is unlikely to have been solved by the simple addition of Steven Smith. That Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka failed to win a game in the Super Eight rubs salt into the wound.

However, this isn't a one off. The 2022, 2024 and 2026 T20 World Cups have all resulted in early exits for a team that is expected to make the semi-finals at a minimum. They fielded their least experienced group in 2026, and it is comfortably their worst result, but in 2022 and 2024 they had World Cup winners Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, David Warner and Matthew Wade in the team and still stumbled.

What to do about it ahead of 2028 is a complex question to answer.

WHO STAYS, WHO GOES, WHAT IS NEEDED

Ricky Ponting suggested there wouldn't be too many personnel changes ahead of 2028 although he ruled a line through Glenn Maxwell who will be 40 by the time the next T20 World Cup starts while Marcus Stoinis will be 39.

Australia have a decent core that could remain in place with Mitchell Marsh, whose injury before the opening match in Sri Lanka was unlucky timing, and Travis Head unlikely to be usurped as the openers in two years. Josh Inglis had a poor tournament and a poor run of form over the summer but he is still Australia's best T20 wicketkeeper-batter by a large margin.

Cameron Green is well short on runs and fans are very frustrated with his presence in all three Australian teams. But he was one of Australia's best T20 batters in 2025 and their best performer in the warm-up series in Pakistan. He should be entering his prime in 2028, although some would argue he should be there already.

Tim David will only be 32 in 2028 but will need to sort out the hamstring issues that have plagued him across the last year. Nathan Ellis and Adam Zampa should be the fulcrums of the attack as they were at this World Cup. Seven players is a starting point. Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly and Matt Renshaw will all continue to improve too and will no doubt get further opportunities over the next 18 months.

But fast-tracking the development of others to fill the obvious needs is the challenge. Australia cannot bank on Cummins and Hazlewood being available for 2028 and they got an ugly glimpse of what that looks like in this tournament. Australia's white-ball bowling cupboard beyond the big three is very thin. There are concerns about the red-ball cupboard, too, but Scott Boland, Michael Neser, and to a lesser extent Jhye Richardson and Brendan Doggett, proved during the Ashes that there is cover at least over the next 18 months.

It begs the question should Australia be picking separate Test and T20I teams? On paper it seems sound given the complete divergence in skills required for each game. In practicality, it's hard to see how not selecting a player like Head makes Australia's T20 team better.

Australia simply doesn't have the depth to do something like that. India has the biggest talent pool in the world, and they still pick Jasprit Bumrah and others across all three formats. England would not be as advanced in the World Cup without Harry Brook and Jofra Archer. New Zealand's Matt Henry, Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell are key cogs across all three forms. South Africa has a virtual Test side dominating the tournament to-date with the additions of specialists Quinton de Kock, formerly a Test player, and David Miller.

COACH, SELECTION AND STRATEGY

The question then turns to getting the best out of the players via coaching, selection and strategy. The same coaching and selection panel has overseen the last three failed T20 World Cup campaigns. During that same period, however, that hierarchy has only lost one Test series in four years, won a WTC final and qualified for a second, won an ODI World Cup and made a Champions Trophy semi-final with a team that was missing Marsh and the big three quicks.

The failures in the T20 tournaments don't make much sense when you consider the knowledge in Australia's coaching staff. Head coach Andrew McDonald was the bowling coach during the 2021 title and batting coach Michael Di Venuto was also there. Fielding coach Andre Borovec worked with McDonald in a strategy role when they won the 2018-19 BBL title at Melbourne Renegades. McDonald also has plenty of IPL coaching experience.

Bowling coach Daniel Vettori was not at the World Cup but had been part of the planning and a key advisor from afar given he coaches Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL and has vast franchise experience. James Franklin stood in for Vettori and has coached in the Blast, the PSL and the IPL. Wade was also seconded into Australia's coaching group for the World Cup having been a key contributor as a player in the 2021 title. Chair of selectors George Bailey captained Australia to a T20 World Cup semi-final in Sri Lanka in 2012.

A question was put to Australia's third selector, Tony Dodemaide, whether the hierarchy was spread too thin across all three formats year-round which he did not think was the case. The same question could apply to the analyst Tom Body, the medical and strength and conditioning team. Having to look ahead to the T20 World Cup while the Ashes was going on was a big ask.

However, Australia's strategy was sound based off the way the Super Eight is playing out. They have not been playing an outdated brand. Last October they appeared ahead of the curve having won 10 of 11 at one point against West Indies, South Africa, New Zealand and India, teams that are all competing in the latter stages of this tournament.

The physical preparation of some of the white-ball specialists given the injury issues the squad carried into the tournament is being reviewed. Australia has a long injury list across it's fast bowling group that is also being looked into.

But beyond that, the question turns back to why this hierarchy has not been able to get the best out of this playing group in this format particularly in World Cups and whether it is the right one for 2028.

McDonald is contracted to the end of the 2027 ODI World Cup and none of the assistants or selectors are locked in beyond that, but it doesn't mean they haven't been planning for 2028. It's understood Olympic discussions were held as far back as 2024 and there is work already being done as far ahead as 2029 even though the Future Tours Programme is yet to be finalised.

But given Australia are only set to play three T20I series between now and November 2027 - a three-match series against Bangladesh away, five against England at home in November, and possibly three against New Zealand at home in the northern states in August/September 2027 - is there a case to look at different coaching options for those series with a longer term lens? McDonald and his group will have at least 20 Tests to deal with in the meantime, as well as bilateral ODIs and the build to that World Cup.

Split coaching has been tried elsewhere without great success. England won the 2022 T20 World Cup with Matthew Mott at the helm while Brendon McCullum was beginning his Bazball revolution with the Test team. But Mott was axed after the 2023 ODI World Cup failure and the 2024 T20 World Cup semi-final exit, and McCullum is currently head coach across all formats.

South Africa had split coaches for a short time but have brought all three forms back under Shukri Conrad. New Zealand considered splitting their roles when Gary Stead finished early last year but instead appointed Rob Walter across all three. Pakistan are the only national team left persisting with split roles but continue to cycle through coaches in those split roles.

The cost of not having continuity in coaching and selection across formats, and the ability to plan and prioritise certain series across a calendar year, probably outweighs the benefits of a fresh voice with fresh ideas overseeing the T20 team where the push and pull of formats can cause friction between coaching groups.

But fresh voices in some kind of role must at least be considered if winning a T20 World Cup is a priority. There is no shortage of credentialed T20 coaches and strategists both within Australia and globally.

Do individual players need individual consultants? Getting more from Green is a priority. He is about to spend 10 weeks with Shane Watson at Kolkata Knight Riders, with Watson one of the few people in the world who can identify with Green's current predicament.

Ultimately it comes down to budgeting, availability and whether fresh faces can align with the current coaching set-up to ensure there isn't conflicting messaging. As with the players, the franchise world can pay more to coaches than CA can, hence Vettori currently coaches two franchise teams and is director of cricket at a third while being Australia's bowling coach.

These are decisions that fall in the lap of CA head of national teams Ben Oliver, head of cricket James Allsop and CEO Todd Greenberg.

BILATERALS AND THE BBL

Coaches can only do so much. Players have got to take some responsibility for why they are unable to execute at T20 World Cups when they are performing elsewhere.

Zampa made some interesting comments after the loss to Sri Lanka

"We've been able to do it in bilateral series," he said. "You look back six months ago to the West Indies, we won 5-0 and we played unbelievable cricket. The guys hit the ball out of the park. You can look back and say there was probably hardly any pressure compared to what we can't come up with in a World Cup and once that was on the line we weren't able to do it unfortunately, so it's really disappointing."

Australia blooded the likes of Matt Short, Aaron Hardie, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Mitchell Owen, Bartlett and Connolly among others in bilateral series across 2024 and 2025 yet only two made the World Cup squad and neither had an impact.

Apart from Fraser-McGurk, the dominance the others have shown at times in the BBL raises questions about the value of that tournament as a breeding ground for T20 World Cups.

There has long been a debate about whether the BBL is entertainment first, quality of cricket second, and therefore not providing a suitable stage for the development of Australia's next generation of T20 players.

The decision to introduce the power surge in 2020 has fundamentally changed the way the game is played compared to the international level, as Bailey articulated prior to the World Cup.

"The surge is an interesting rule from a selection point of view," Bailey said. "One of the things we value and have talked a lot to individual players and to franchises at different times is around the value we put in those finishers and middle-order players and their ability through that.

"[The surge] blurs that a little bit. I think the four overs at the top in the powerplay, different again. So they're different rules to international cricket, and they're not necessarily negative or positive. They're just different. So it just forces you to look at data potentially slightly different ways."

The numbers bear that out. The surge, where batters can have a two-over period in the final 10 overs with just two fielders out, has made middle and death overs batting significantly easier.

Hardie is a case in point. In the surge, he strikes at 205.37 and averages 47.75. In the other overs between 5-20 when there are five men out, his strike-rate drops to 131.46 with an average of 29.76. Australia have tried to develop him as an allrounder/finisher in the T20I team, but he's only managed to average 22 and strike at 130.5 in 10 T20I innings with five men out. Stoinis averages 33.02 and strikes at 156.21 in the same role in 52 T20I innings since December 2020.

Jack Edwards is another that Australia would love to develop in that role. But like Hardie his strike-rate drops from 178.57 in the surge to 118.4 with five men out.

Smith is the fastest surge batter in the BBL, striking at 247.22. But in 15 T20I innings since 2020, he strikes at 122.45 outside the powerplay. In the Hundred in 2025, the only other franchise tournament not to play with T20I rules, Smith averaged 19.57 and struck at 129.24 where there's no surge and the powerplay is only 25 balls long, one ball longer than the BBL's 24 balls.

The other downstream effect of the surge that Bailey noted is the shortened four-over powerplay. Australia could not take powerplay wickets in the World Cup. Bartlett and Ben Dwarshuis have not had to bowl overs five and six with fielding restrictions in the BBL for five years. In T20I cricket those two overs are among the hardest overs to bowl, with the new ball swing having usually disappeared and the openers often having had 10-15 balls to get the pace of the surface.

On top of that, the best four-over powerplay bowler since 2020 has been Sean Abbott with 32 wickets at 16.9 and an economy rate of 6.93. In the same period, Abbott has been Australia's worst T20I powerplay bowler, taking seven wickets at 44.57 in 22 innings and conceding 10.4 per over. Hazlewood, who has perfected his powerplay bowling in the IPL on flat pitches with six-over powerplays, has 39 T20I powerplay wickets at 17.51, with an economy rate of 6.09 in the same period.

Australia currently only have five guaranteed T20Is on Australia's major venues before the 2028 World Cup. But BBL players will have two tournaments, which is a 10-game regular season, to develop their skills and push their case for World Cup roles in the same conditions. If the rules remain as they are, and the standard of cricket isn't lifted by better players being involved, then it will be hard for selectors to pick players based off BBL performances just as it was for this World Cup just gone.

There is plenty for CA to consider, and not all of it will be decided at a national team level, with conflicting challenges of commercialism, scheduling and high performance creating significant challenges. But three poor World Cups in a row is enough to say things aren't working.