His workloads are being closely examined by the national selectors after Head struggled to perform consistently for the Test team last summer, following his match-winning performances at the ODI World Cup in India.

Numerous multi-format players are currently signed to play in the US-based Major League Cricket tournament, before white-ball series against Scotland and England in the UK, to be followed by more white-ball games at home against Pakistan ahead of the Border-Gavaskar series.

Starc, who played in the IPL this year but has often foregone franchise offers to prolong his Test career in particular, has said the current array of Twenty20 leagues has created an unceasing menu of matches and money for players.

“I think Test cricket needs to be protected somewhat,” Starc told the Willow Talk podcast. “There’s an option to do anything.

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“There’s Aussie guys playing the MLC, then there’s the Hundred after it, you’ve got ILT20 and BBL during the Australian summer, the IPL has its own window, Sri Lanka league is on at the moment, T10 leagues as well, and legends leagues – it’s like the Champions Tour in golf, you can go play forever.”

Players are growing increasingly wary of what they see as imbalances in the international system, meaning players from some countries still have strong financial incentives to play Tests, while others are left with little option but to put franchise dollars first. The threat of Test cricket shrinking to as few as six teams by 2027 is very real.

“You don’t want to see something where South Africa send not their strongest team because they have to stay at home and play their domestic T20 competition,” Starc said.

“What happens if it’s an Australian situation where, we’re very fortunate to be paid what we are, but our Big Bash is on at the same time as our Test matches and you go ‘Smith, Cummins, Hazlewood, you all need to play BBL instead of playing three Tests in Australia’? That’s what you want to protect against.

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“The way that it’s divvied up at ICC level is why they can’t justify giving up $200-300,000 contracts in franchise cricket to play Tests, because it’s an imbalance there with the top six and the rest.”

The recently retired David Warner is expected to reach terms with Sydney Thunder to play a full BBL season, after two years when he mixed Tests with club duty.

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