Australia’s leading fast-bowling wicket-taker says the age of the current side will see opportunities open up for other.
Glenn McGrath hopes that the incentive of winning an Ashes series outright in England next year will keep the flame burning for Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, but he expects the pace attack to go through a period of transition in the near future.
“There’s a few [new fast bowlers] coming through at the moment. The Pakistan tours before and after the World T20 didn’t go to plan,” McGrath said during an interaction at the MRF Academy in Chennai on Monday. “But I think there’s opportunity for quite a few young guys at the moment. Guys like Spencer Johnson have some real pace, but whether they’ve had enough opportunity? I know [Nathan] Ellis has been for a while and [Xavier] Bartlett, they are the next level [in white-ball cricket].
“Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins are all in their mid-to-late thirties, aren’t they? You wonder how long they can go. I look at it from an Australian perspective in Test cricket. The Ashes is coming up next year in England and Australia have not won an Ashes in England outright since 2001. Hopefully, there’s incentive for the boys to keep going, but there’s going to be that turnover. You’ve also got Will Sutherland, Jack Edwards and Brendan Doggett. Plenty of young guys there, but we’ll wait and see if someone really puts their hands up.”
The fitness and depth of Australia’s pace resources will be tested over the next 14 months with at least 20 Tests on the schedule. Cummins played just once in last season’s Ashes due to a back injury and Hazlewood didn’t feature at all.
McGrath suggested that Shield success could tune up the fast bowlers for Test-match challenges. Nathan McAndrew, for instance, is among those Shield bowlers who could help boost Australia’s pace stocks. In March, former Australia fast bowler Ryan Harris felt that McAndrew should be in the Test frame.
“A lot of it comes back to Shield cricket, I think,” McGrath said. “I don’t know their exact stats in Shield cricket, but state cricket in Australia is quite competitive. South Australia have won back-to-back and a couple of their guys have done well. There’s going to be opportunities out there and we’ll see once they get there.”
McGrath: ‘Peake has potential but playing for your country is different’
In terms of the future, McGrath has been encouraged by his early sightings of Ollie Peake. McGrath believed that the 19-year-old has the potential to succeed across conditions and that he might also be in contention for next year’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India.
Peake recently became the youngest specialist men’s batter to debut for Australia and fourth youngest overall for them in ODI cricket. In his second innings, on a slow surface in Lahore, he showed glimpses of his potential, scoring 31 off 32 balls while taking on fast bowler Haris Rauf and wristspinner Shadab Khan. In 2025, McGrath had observed Peake’s development in subcontinent conditions when he visited the MRF Academy in Chennai.
“It’s a great opportunity for him [to be exposed to Bangladesh conditions]. He’s only a young guy,” McGrath said. “He was also here with the Aussie team at MRF. He’s been a talent identified for a while. This will be the true test to see how the handles [pressure] – but again he’s huge potential. He’s played well at the Big Bash and he’s also played well at state level. He’s got that feel, but playing for your country it’s a little different.
“The Australian selectors will be looking at him for things like that [Border-Gavaskar Trophy]. The Australian team itself is getting older. The [current] average age of the team is probably as old as the team I played in. So, there’s going to be opportunities coming in the next little while. We’ll wait and see, but I think he’s at the top of the list [for the Australia selectors]. If he gets the opportunity and plays well, I think he’s got all the attributes.”