Labuschagne is out of Australia’s ODI squad, and the next six games are in the 2027 World Cup countries
Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh are back, Joel Davies could debut, and George Bailey says the Test selection is a separate conversation that gets settled next week.
Sep 4, 2026
Australia have left Marnus Labuschagne out of the ODI squad for their tours of Zimbabwe and South Africa this month, and the reason is less about one bad series than about where the selectors think the next twelve months are going.
The six matches, three in Harare and three in South Africa, are being treated as the start of the build towards the 2027 World Cup, which South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia will co-host. Playing them in the host countries a year out is the point of the trip.
“This six-game series is an important lead-in to next year’s World Cup, being played in the same countries, for the group,” chair of selectors George Bailey said.
Squeezed out rather than dropped in disgrace
Labuschagne had a hard time of it on the tours of Pakistan and Bangladesh in June, though he did make an unbeaten 55 in the second match there after being shifted down the order. What finished him off was the traffic coming the other way. Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh are both back in the ODI set-up after sitting out those tours, and the selectors want to keep looking at their younger batters. Two returning senior players plus a policy of persisting with the new ones leaves somebody out.
His Test place is a separate conversation, and one that gets settled next week when the squad for the three-match series in South Africa is named. Bailey was careful about that. “We’re still very much working through what that Test squad looks like, but I can say [we] separate out those formats,” he told reporters.
Who comes in
Joel Davies, the New South Wales allrounder, could make his ODI debut after a good T20I series in Bangladesh. Ollie Peake, the left-hander, keeps his place. Bailey was warm about both of them, saying the selectors rate them highly and want them to keep getting exposure in the Australian side.
The pace department gets two names back from the wilderness. Spencer Johnson has played five ODIs, the last of them in early 2025, and returned to the T20I team in Bangladesh after a long spell out injured. Billy Stanlake was in the ODI squad in Pakistan and played at Rawalpindi, his first international appearance in more than seven years, though he went wicketless in his one game.
Cooper Connolly is in after a back injury and is bowling again. He made 149 against Bangladesh in Mirpur, which is the sort of innings that keeps a place warm through a lay-off.
Two captains, one tour
Pat Cummins is still Australia’s ODI captain but only joins for the South Africa leg, along with Mitchell Starc, ahead of the Test series in October. Marsh leads in Zimbabwe, and he and Cummins will split the job in South Africa depending on how many games Cummins ends up playing. Josh Hazlewood is in for both series.
The Zimbabwe ODIs are on 15, 18 and 20 September in Harare. The South African leg follows on 24, 27 and 30 September in Durban, Johannesburg and Potchefstroom.
One selection footnote worth noting for Indian readers: Australia A are touring India at the same time, and the selectors chose not to shuffle players between the two squads. Connolly, Peake and Davies had all been floated as candidates for red-ball cricket in India with next year’s Test tour in mind, and all three stay with the ODI group instead. Spencer Johnson is the only man from this squad heading to India, for the white-ball part of the A tour after the South Africa ODIs finish.
Australia’s ODI squad: Xavier Bartlett, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Pat Cummins (South Africa only), Joel Davies, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Spencer Johnson, Mitchell Marsh, Oliver Peake, Matthew Renshaw, Billy Stanlake, Mitchell Starc (South Africa only), Adam Zampa.