Last Updated on 15 minutes ago by Charbel Coorey
Allan Border believes Australia must introduce new bowling talent to Test cricket. The Australians face a mammoth schedule in the next 12 months, with 20 Tests (21 if they reach the WTC Final) all over the globe.
Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, who have been excellent over a number of years, are getting on in years and are working their way back from injuries. Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland are 36 and 37 years of age respectively.
Australia must introduce new bowling talent in Tests – Allan Border
“We still need to find out who our next group of quickies are going to be”, Border told CODE Sports.
“Those top four [Cummins, Hazlewood, Starc, Boland] have been sensational in the last few years, so it’s just hard to know who our next group are. So we need to start introducing a few of those younger quickies over the next 12 months for sure.”
Border pinpointed Callum Vidler as a prospect to watch out for. The 20-year-old was instrumental in helping Australia win the U19 World Cup title in 2024 and was impressive in the 2024/25 Sheffield Shueld Final – just his third First Class match. He took 4/64 in the first innings for Queensland against South Australia.
“We haven’t seen much of (Vidler), but he’s got all the basic ingredients there. That raw pace, a bit of aggression about him,” Border said.
“These fellows are the guys that you know would expect to come through, but they just have to go through that injury process that young fast bowlers seem to have to go through. We’ve got some exciting prospects. Someone will come out of the pack and we need two or three of them really to come out of the pack and take over from the big four because they’ve been so good for so long.”
However, Australia faces a back injury epidemic, with Alex Malcolm’s piece for Cricinfo a real eye-opener.
Fast bowlers right around the country have been struck down by lumbar stress injuries, including Vidler himself. Captain Cummins is only just returning to Tests, while Mahli Beardman, Spencer Johnson and Lance Morris are working to get back to action.
Morris is nearing a return after he had a screw and cable surgically fused into his vertebrae. It is the same procedure all-rounder Cameron Green had in 2024.
Fergus O’Neill and Nathan McAndrew are two of the Sheffield Shield’s best performers in recent years. O’Neill, who has 200 FC wickets at 19.43, will be part of the Australia A touring squad to India later this year, indicating a Test berth isn’t too far away.
