![\"Australia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0fffaba072abd616412eef369725508d2f05067f.jpg\")
Camera IconAustralia will play as many as 21 Test matches over the next 12 months. Credit: Quinn Rooney\/Getty Images<\/p>\nPat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Scott Boland are not so much raging against the dying of the light as they are defying it dying at all.<\/p>\n
But a jam-packed run of as many as 21 Test matches across the next 12 months may very well prove to be the \u2018Last Dance\u2019 for Australia\u2019s fearsome foursome of fast bowlers.<\/p>\n
Just as the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls did in a 1997-98 NBA season made globally famous by a smash-hit documentary series two decades later, the quartet will be aiming to defy their advancing age to stay on top of the world.<\/p>\n
A low-key two-Test home series against Bangladesh, which begins in Darwin next Thursday, will mark the start of Australia\u2019s unrelenting run of red-ball cricket.<\/p>\n
The side will soon have the chance to erase any lingering doubts over their greatness by conquering their final frontiers in India and England, both of which they will visit for five-Test series next year.<\/p>\n
In between, they will play three five-dayers in South Africa \u2014 marking their first visit since the 2018 sandpaper scandal \u2014 host New Zealand for four more and play their part in the one-off Sesquicentennary Test against England under lights at the MCG.<\/p>\n
If they continue to win enough, they will also have their chance to feature in what would be a third consecutive World Test Championship final and atone for last year\u2019s shock loss to the Proteas.<\/p>\n
Camera IconAustralia will play as many as 21 Test matches over the next 12 months. Credit: Quinn Rooney\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
As chief selector George Bailey has forecast, Australia\u2019s quicks will almost certainly have to swallow their pride and accept some rest and rotation throughout the period.<\/p>\n
You would not have known it from their herculean efforts in last summer\u2019s Ashes, but Boland and Starc are the oldest members of the legendary quartet, figuring at 37 and 36 years of age respectively.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Hazlewood \u2014 who has been wracked by injury in the back half of his career \u2014 is 35, and the captain Cummins, who featured only once in a 4-1 triumph over England due to a flare-up of back stress, is 33.<\/p>\n
Despite Boland having emerged as the brightest of breakout stars, the contemporary he profiles most similarly to in Hazlewood has retained his place in Australia\u2019s XI when fit, save for the 2023 WTC final when he was short of match rhythm.<\/p>\n
![\"Boland](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/86ccedc4a6347ae8edfaa69d0794a427c77c4125.jpg\")
Camera IconBoland has remained on the fringes of Australia\u2019s side when Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood are all fit. Credit: Robert Cianflone\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
But that may change about to change, with Bailey earlier this month saying the Victorian had established a compelling argument to be considered an all-conditions lock through his consistent brilliance.<\/p>\n
\u201cScotty would never say it, but I think he\u2019s mounting a strong case that when you use the words \u2018the big three\u2019, that he could be one of those,\u201d Bailey said last month.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur planning is that across the 21 Tests there will be different times when there will be different names and a different line-up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not so much forecasting, in terms of mapping out that they\u2019ll miss certain games. The conditions and the outcomes will dictate that a little bit as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking from a pre-Bangladesh series camp in Brisbane on Thursday, Hazlewood said he would \u201clove to play more with Scotty\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re obviously a little bit similar, but I think there\u2019s still a lot of differences in our bowling,\u201d Hazlewood said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time he\u2019s come in, he\u2019s done unbelievably well. His career just keeps getting better and better the older he gets.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s enough opportunities in the next 12-18 months for us to play a lot of cricket hopefully together, that\u2019d be a nice one to tick off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hazlewood said the side\u2019s three away assignments on the horizon represented their chance .<\/p>\n
\u201cThis group\u2019s been together for quite a long time now \u2014 the majority of it, anyway \u2014and the big series are obviously England and India,\u201d Hazlewood said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t won in South Africa either, so there\u2019s three that are coming up . . . a few boxes to tick off there \u2014 not just me, (but) this whole playing group.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Scott Boland are not so much raging against the dying of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,740,44,588],"class_list":["post-839504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-news","tag-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}