Young talent crime: Where is Australia?s generation next? - Sydney Morning Herald

In 2011, Cricket Australia high-performance boss Pat Howard asked then national talent boss Greg Chappell and the state talent managers to pick hypothetical squads for the following year’s Twenty20 World Cup, the 2013 Ashes and the 2015 one-day international World Cup.

Five players were nominated in all three squads: David Warner, Pat Cummins, James Pattinson and the Marsh brothers, Shaun and Mitchell. Steve Smith, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Usman Khawaja and the late Phillip Hughes had all been earmarked for long international careers.

Only Warner and Starc actually played in the three marquee events, but the core of that group has been prominent in Australia’s men’s team in the past decade.

If a similar exercise was conducted today for next year’s T20 World Cup, the 2023 ODI World Cup and 2025-26 Ashes at home, Cummins, 28, may well be the only player who selectors could confidently say would be picked for all three.

Cameron Green and Will Pucovski loom as 10-year Test players, but who else can that be said of for those aged 25 and under?

Chappell, who retired in 2019, and Steve Waugh have both asked questions about Cricket Australia’s development program, which can no longer claim to be the best in the world.

Cricketers generally do not peak until their late 20s, but world-class players tend to make their Test debuts well before then.