Cricket Australia (CA) announced a 21-player men’s contract list for 2026-27 that includes Test series against Bangladesh (home), South Africa (away), New Zealand (home), India (away), the 150th anniversary Test against England, a possible World Test Championship final and the start of the 2027 Ashes. There are also three ODI series against Zimbabwe (away), South Africa (away) and England (home) as well as one five-match home T20I series against England. Here are the main talking points to emerge.

Weatherald backed as Test opener

Jake Weatherald‘s inclusion in the list was a strong indication that he is set to retain his place at the top of the Test order. Weatherald scored 201 runs at 22.33 in the Ashes with just one half-century in Brisbane. He frustratingly reached 17 six times out of 10 innings but only passed 34 once. However, he shared in four important half-century stands with Travis Head, several of which were vital in the context of the series. Chair of selectors George Bailey noted that the team for Australia’s next Test against Bangladesh in August was a long way from being selected but he added that Weatherald’s place on the contract list showed their thinking.

Editor’s Picks

2 Related

“It’s an indication. It’s not a guarantee,” he said. “He’s the incumbent in that role. He’s had a few good years of really consistent first-class cricket as well. Not shying away from I think there was a real plan and a target from England around some of the technical aspects of his game. But we think he can play. And I think he’s got a really good opportunity now.

“Bouncing out of that Ashes series, he went straight to work on how he could address some of those and hopefully fine tune his game. I think we’ve seen at his best that it can work at that level. So it’s just about maybe tinkering with a couple of things and just being able to replicate that for longer periods and hopefully across a range of conditions.”

Why no Jhye Richardson when quicks will be needed?

Jhye Richardson‘s omission was perhaps the most surprising given he had been contracted the last two years while hardly playing due to a series of injuries. He is finally healthy having returned to Test cricket for the first time in four years in the Boxing Day Test. He played five first-class matches, including that Test, across the summer having managed only four in the previous three summers, and is now headed to Yorkshire to play more red-ball matches in the County Championship.

Bailey explained that Richardson was close, but like fellow injury-prone West Australian quick Lance Morris, the decision to drop them off the list after managing them through their injuries did not mean they could not feature for Australia.

Jhye Richardson is back in the Test squad Getty Images

“Jhye is one that was right on the fringes,” Bailey said. “I think Jhye, [and] I’ll throw Lance into this conversation as well, we thought it was really important to make sure that we supported them through the last couple of years as they were working through their injuries.

“Both remain hopefully important players for us … hopefully both will put themselves in a position where they’re at the peak of their powers and available.

“I think Jhye did an incredible job to get back to play that Test. We probably saw that he could function in a team with four quicks. He’s still got a little bit of work to do, I think, just to get back to top ball speed and that intensity of being able to be in an attack with three quicks. But hopefully that’ll build over time.

“I think when you look ahead at that schedule over the next 12-18 months, it’s incredibly busy, and we know we’re going to have to utilize some depth outside of the contracted list.”

Michael Neser and Brendan Doggett, who played five Tests between them during the Ashes and have shown to be more durable than the West Australians, having been added to the contract list as the fifth and sixth-choice Test quicks behind the big four.

Nathan Lyon helps Todd Murphy with his fielding plans Getty ImagesMurphy added with Lyon’s injury a factor

Todd Murphy has returned to the list, joining Matthew Kuhnemann and Nathan Lyon, after losing his spot last year to make way for Kuhnemann. Australia’s five-Test tour of India in early 2027 is the major reason with the trio playing together in three of the four Tests in India in 2023 as well as one Test together in Sri Lanka in 2025.

Outside of needing three spinners in India, Murphy’s inclusion s indicative of the concerns around the 38-year-old Lyon who is currently rehabbing from major hamstring surgery.

Murphy was selected ahead of Kuhnemann to join Australia’s Ashes squad as the sole spinner for the final two Tests after Lyon was injured in Adelaide. He was not selected for either game but was very close to playing in Sydney. Bailey said Lyon’s rehab has been going well but conceded the panel is wary of how much he might be capable of playing given the schedule.

“A pretty significant hamstring tendon injury to a 38-year-old, probably there’s a higher degree, or a sense of realism that it may not ever get back to the upper echelon of where you need it to,” Bailey said. “So what does that look like? It may mean there’s not necessarily the capacity to play big blocks of games, and you may have to look at that. So I think it’s just being a little bit aware that that’s a possibility.

“But having said all that, as it stands at the moment, and with a really good block fit in to get it as strong and to get back to bowling as well as he can, he’s got a great opportunity for that and it’s tracking well at the moment.”

Travis Head, Steven Smith and Pat Cummins during the anthem Getty ImagesWhy only 21 contracts?

The number of total contracts have been reduced from 23 last year to 21 despite the fact Australia are going to play more than twice as many Test matches. Under the Memorandum of Understanding (Australia’s players’ pay deal), there can be as few as 20 or as many as 24 contracts in each financial year, but the total pool of money it gets drawn from remains the same.

In 2026-27, the total retainer pool is just under AU$22 million. Fewer contracts means bigger slices of the pie. There has been a quiet push behind the scenes for Australia’s best three-format performers to be paid a lot more and to offset the loss of potential franchise earnings in leagues that they can’t play due to national duty.

“It was tricky,” Bailey said. “I think we’re constantly trying to get that balance of rewarding those that have performed well for a period of time and have contributed to what’s been, particularly in the Test space, a very successful period. And then I think there’s a level of evenness across a number of players who are on the fringes of playing for Australia.

“With the schedule that we have, we’re going to have to go outside the contract list. We go outside the contract list every year. From last year, I think there were 10 other players that ended up being upgraded with some series to come as well. So we know we’re going to be we challenged on the depth front at different times across the formats. So I think one of the beauties of the contracting system is that the players can separate themselves out through performance and then get upgraded. I’ve got no doubt that’ll happen again.”

There is an upgrade pool of money that sits separate but each upgrade does not cost as much. An upgraded CA contracted for 2026-27 is just over AU$360,000. Players can qualify by playing six white-ball internationals, three Tests, or a combination of the two. Most of those players are also upgraded from their state contracts.

The top earners in state cricket earn around $200,000, which means an upgrade might only cost around $160,000. The exceptions to that are freelancers like Tim David and Marcus Stoinis, who earn full upgrades as they don’t have a state deal.

This is where it gets interesting for the two white-ball specialists who were dropped off the list this year in Glenn Maxwell and Matthew Short. Australia only have five T20Is in the contract period, meaning T20I-only players like Maxwell, Stoinis and David won’t get enough to earn an upgrade. In Short’s case, he would need to also play ODI cricket. But Australia only have nine ODIs in the period as well, all of which are crucial preparation for next year’s ODI World Cup.

Sam Konstas continued a run of not converting starts Getty ImagesWhere to for Sam Konstas?

In the context of Weatherald’s elevation, it is worth noting that the selectors contracted Sam Konstas this time last year with a view to having him as a long-term Test opener and he only played three more Tests (two in the contract period) before losing his deal.

He had a bizarre year in Sheffield Shield cricket. He finished fifth among the top run-scorers with 660 at 33.00, including a century and two fifties. But in his last eight innings after the BBL, his lowest score was 27 and his highest was 44.

“Nothing’s really changed in terms of the fact that he is on a journey,” Bailey said. “I think we can take some positives out of the fact he was getting consistent starts across those Shield games. Would he have liked to have gone on and scored some big runs out of that? No doubt.

“He remains a player that we’re incredibly interested in. We’ve got an Australia A trip to India later in the year. I imagine, as it stands at the moment, he is a strong chance to be a part of that.”

Matt Renshaw is another who is not on the list who was very close to gaining a contract after qualifying for an upgrade last year through his elevation to both white-ball teams. There is a chance he could be upgraded very quickly again if he stays in Australia’s first choice ODI XI for all six games in Zimbabwe and South Africa in September.

He was also the only player to score three centuries in the Shield this season and could well return to Test cricket given he can open or bat middle-order, and he was selected to play Tests on Australia’s last tour of India in 2023 due to his prowess against spin.