Cricket
5 hours ago
Morris and Sundaresan rank Cricket Australia’s 21 contracted players
By SEN
SEN The New Ball duo Tom Morris and Bharat Sundaresan have ranked the 21 players with Cricket Australia men’s contracts for this season.
The 21-player list was revealed at the end of March, with Australia reducing their contracted group from 23 to 21, with the 2026-27 period being very Test cricket heavy with tours to South Africa, India and England.
Sundaresan says that’s one reason why he rated red-ball players over white-ball options in his rankings, which may have changed during a T20 or 50-over World Cup period.
“Let me give some rationale as to why I picked people where,” Sundaresan said.
“It’s not a white-ball calendar year, by the time the 50-over World Cup arrives, it’s the next contract cycle, and the T20 World Cup has just ended.
“Australia are not playing a lot of relevant white-ball cricket between now and the end of this contract.
“Which is why Mitch Marsh, even as a captain, because he’s retired from red-ball cricket, I’ve put him down a bit.
“But if this were next year or the previous year, he, Zampa and Josh Inglis would be further up.”
The duo revealed their lists in full while providing reasons behind their top five selections.
Check them out below!
Tom Morris’ rankings
1 - Pat Cummins
“Pat Cummins is one, and that’s self-explanatory,” Morris said.
“He’s the captain, he plays all three formats, he's a leader in more ways than one.”
2 - Travis Head
“I think Travis Head has now had that many match-winning knocks over a long period of time.
He deserves to be number two, and he's the vice-captain of the Test team.
3 - Steve Smith
“This might be a bit controversial. I’ve got Smith at number three.
“To me, Smith is still the iconic batter in this team. He's a generational player, and you could argue he's even more than that as the player of his generation.”
4 - Mitchell Starc
“I’ve got Starc four, and that is very harsh based on the year he’s just had. I could have him at two.”
5 - Alex Carey
“I've got Alex Carey at number five, and the reason I’ve got him there is he’s an incredibly important player, but I just can't put him ahead of the top four,
“I look at the top four, and I’m like, ‘They are incredible cricketers’.”
6 - Josh Hazlewood
7 - Nathan Lyon
8 - Scott Boland
9 - Cameron Green
10 - Mitchell Marsh
11 - Adam Zampa
12 - Marnus Labuschagne
13 - Beau Webster
14 - Josh Inglis
15 - Nathan Ellis
16 - Matt Kuhnamann
17 - Michael Neser
18 - Jake Weatherald
19 - Todd Murphy
20 - Xavier Bartlett
21 - Brendan Doggett
Bharat Sundaresan’s rankings
1 - Pat Cummins
“Pat Cummins still remains number one,” Sundaresan said.
2 - Mitchell Starc
“I could have even put Mitch Starc at number one for what he’s been doing for this team,
“I think more than anyone else, if Australia are going to be a force on those three major away tours, South Africa, India, and England, I think Mitch Starc will be at the helm, so I could have easily put him number one.”
3 - Alex Carey
“I could have easily put Travis Head at three and Alex Carey at four, but I went the other way purely because of just what Carey seems to be doing for Australian cricket on and off the field.
“He comes back and wins South Australia the Sheffield Shield, the batting form, the fact that as wicketkeeper he's picked up two Player of the Match awards in the same calendar year in Sri Lanka and in Adelaide.
“Then there’s what he's doing as keeper, that's why he's number three.”
4 - Travis Head
“I've gone Travis Head at number four,
“I know he's going to play all formats and he'll be a key player now, especially now that he is an opener.”
5 - Steve Smith
“Steve Smith, he’s a one-format player. I know there will be some calls for him to play T20 again. But maybe they have come to an end now.
“Smith could well be captain again, depending on Pat Cummins' fitness. He’ll be a huge player.
“The only reason he's at five and not higher is because of the four players ahead of him.”
6 - Scott Boland
7 - Nathan Lyon
8 - Josh Hazlewood
9 - Beau Webster
10 - Marnus Labuschagne
11 - Cameron Green
12 - Mitch Marsh
13 - Matt Kuhnemann
14 - Michael Neser
15 - Jake Weatherald
16 - Josh Inglis
17 - Adam Zampa
18 - Nathan Ellis
19 - Todd Murphy
20 - Xavier Bartlett
21 - Brendan Doggett
