Australia’s 2023 ODI World Cup-winning Head Coach Andrew McDonald has urged the International Cricket Council to expand squad sizes for the 2027 edition of the tournament, arguing that the revised format’s increased match load makes a 15-player limit inadequate for teams competing deep into the competition. Speaking to SEN Radio, McDonald made the case for 17-player squads, drawing on Australia’s own experience of managing injuries at previous World Cups and pointing to the physical demands facing his squad in the months leading up to the tournament.
Expanded format places greater demands on squads
The 2027 ODI World Cup, to be co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, will feature 14 teams competing across a new three-phase structure that includes a Super Series round, a group stage and a Super 7 phase before the semi-finals. Australia won the 2023 edition in India after playing 11 matches across nine group games, a semi-final and a final. Under the revised format, the 2027 champions will play a minimum of 13 matches — five group games, six Super 7 fixtures, a semi-final and a final — with the possibility of reaching 15 should a team emerge from the opening Super Series and progress to the final.
That increase in match volume within the same tournament timeframe sits at the heart of McDonald’s argument. “One of the big things from my perspective is if it is going to be your pinnacle event, what do your squad sizes look like?” he said. The question is not abstract for Australia — it is grounded in a specific and costly experience from the last edition of the tournament.
The Travis Head precedent
McDonald pointed directly to Australia’s 2023 campaign as evidence of why a 15-player squad is insufficient when injuries strike before or during a major tournament. Head suffered a broken finger in the lead-up to the event and, under ICC regulations that prevent a player from leaving the squad and returning mid-tournament without approval as a formal injury replacement, Australia chose to retain him in their 15 rather than bring in a replacement.
The result was that Australia effectively competed with 14 fit players across their opening five matches, carrying Head while he recovered and electing not to include a second specialist spinner as a consequence. McDonald said: “We had the dilemma of what it looked like having a 15-player squad for the last World Cup, and I think New Zealand were in the same boat where we had a couple of injuries, Travis Head been the most notable one, and I think Kane Williamson and a couple of others for New Zealand, where you end up with sort of 12-13 players to select from early on in your tournament, and you are trying to carry those other players through the early rounds, and you are not able to play potentially the way that you want to play, or structure up the way that you think you need to, and in particular in countries where you in the north or the south or the east or the west, the conditions change quite significantly.”
The gamble ultimately paid off for Australia. Head returned to score a century against New Zealand in the group stage, then produced match-winning performances in both knockouts — 62 runs and two wickets against South Africa in the semi-final, followed by a 137 off 120 balls against India in the final as Australia successfully chased 241 to lift the title.
McDonald’s case for 17-player squads
With the 2027 tournament demanding more from finalists in the same window of time, McDonald argued the ICC should respond by giving teams the flexibility to carry more players. He cited the FIFA World Cup, which permitted squads of 26 for a sport played with 11 on the field, with Spain requiring only eight matches to win the 2026 edition — a stark contrast to the minimum 13 matches the 2027 ODI World Cup will demand of its finalists. “My push within it, any time you are playing more games in the same period of time, you do not want it to be attritional,” McDonald noted.
The core of his argument is that a larger squad does not simply provide cover for injury — it allows teams to manage conditions across different regions of a tournament hosted across three countries. “You want the best players to be available. So, there should be a conversation around – yep, that is great, you have landed at that, okay, what about the squad sizes?” he added.
McDonald was clear that the ability to carry players returning from injury could prove decisive in a competition of this length and intensity. “This is going to be a pinnacle event. I think there is an argument to say, great, you have put more games in front of us, give us larger squads, allow us to play the way that we need to play within those conditions, and then also you have got the ability to carry those potential stars of the game that are under injury clouds leading in because the cricket leading into the World Cup is demanding, so you are going to have some people that potentially are 50/50 at that point in time,” he continued.
Rather than allowing injury uncertainty to force selection compromises before a ball has been bowled, McDonald argued the ICC should give teams the tools to protect their best players throughout. “So let us carry the best players in there. Give us larger squads to be able to navigate through the early part, and then hopefully the pinnacle event has the best players playing, rather than being ruled out early on due to injury and the attritional nature of a World Cup,” he stated.
Australia’s pre-tournament schedule heightens the concern
The urgency behind McDonald’s call is sharpened by the volume of red-ball cricket Australia face before the tournament begins. The team are scheduled to play between 20 and 21 Tests in the 14 months leading into the 2027 World Cup, including five-Test series away to both India and England in the first half of 2027. Key players expected to feature across both formats include ODI Captain Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Cameron Green, Marnus Labuschagne and Alex Carey.
Green is the only member of that group under 30, while Cummins, Hazlewood and Starc have each experienced significant injury disruption over the past two years — none of the three featured in either the 2025 Champions Trophy or the 2026 T20 World Cup. The prospect of managing their fitness across an intense Test schedule before asking them to compete in an expanded World Cup makes the squad size question particularly pressing for Australia’s management.
Associate nations penalised by new structure
McDonald also used his SEN Radio interview to address the impact of the revised format on Associate nations, expressing reservations about a structure that offers fewer opportunities than had previously been signalled. Under the new model, only 14 teams compete at the tournament, with three of the lowest-ranked qualifiers first contesting a round-robin Super Series for the right to advance to the main group stage — meaning two sides could be eliminated after playing just two matches. “It’s an interesting structure to a tournament. I think the Associate nations have probably been penalised a little bit. There was a direction from the ICC that there would potentially be more Associate nations at this 50-over World Cup. We’ve seen the growth of Associate teams in T20 cricket, and I think that’s been beneficial for the game,” McDonald said.
Despite McDonald’s public push for larger squads, the ICC is expected to retain the current 15-player limit for the 2027 tournament while maintaining a minimum two-day rest period between matches for every competing team. Whether the governing body revisits the squad size question before the tournament gets underway remains to be seen.
