Mitchell Starc has broken his silence on his shock axing at the T20 World Cup, and flagged that he could soon give away at least one white ball format to protect his Test career.
Starc was controversially axed for Australia’s final group stage match against Afghanistan as selectors favoured the death bowling of Kane Richardson.
Australia went on to claim only a narrow win, and was eliminated from the tournament on net run rate as Starc watched on from the sidelines.
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Speaking after taking 4-47 in the second ODI against England — including two wickets in the first over — Starc said he made his disapproval over his axing known to head selector George Bailey at the time.
“George and I have spoken and that is where it will stay,” he said. “I had strong opinions on it and had a conversation, and that’s where it is.
“I spoke to George at length, it was a good conversation. Many different things were floated there.”
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Starc also offered a pointed remark about bowling with the new ball, which he was prevented from doing a number of times during the T20 World Cup despite a long history of taking early wickets.
“The white ball doesn’t swing much after a couple of overs,” he said. “It’s nice to take a new one and swing it.
“Obviously it is a role I have played for a very long time, so nice to have that role again tonight (in the second ODI). If I do open the bowling, I bowl fast and swing it and try and hit the stumps.”
Meanwhile, Starc said he still has ambitions of playing T20 cricket for Australia, but the future is uncertain.
Australia is not scheduled to play another 20-over match until August, while the growing demands of international cricket is creating a greater strain on players.
Starc is one of the few international superstars who regularly choses to not nominate for the Indian Premier League, but he flagged that missing the tournament will no longer be enough to keep him fresh.
“It’s certainly impossible at the moment to play every game as a three-format player,” Starc said. “We’ve seen that over the last few years, sometimes there’s two Australian teams playing at the same time in different continents in different formats.
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“It’s impossible for everyone to play every single game of cricket in a 12-month period now with the way they are scheduling things. They see a break and put a series on.
“I think having those periods of time to rest helps me keep bowling at decent speeds for a period of time.”
He added: “I don’t think playing three formats is something I can do for a long period of time moving forward now.”
Starc is 32 years old and, given the nature of his fast bowling discipline, is undoubtedly in the back-end of his international career.
The left-armer knows something will have to give to protect the longevity of his career, which is something David Warner also flagged recently.
Speaking to Triple M, Warner said that he could retire from Test cricket within the next 12 months with ODI and T20 World Cups in 2023 and 2024, as well as the IPL, taking precedence.
But Starc intends on taking the opposite approach, saying that Test matches are “far above white ball” in importance for him.
“I’ll decide on the rest as I go and where my body’s at and how I feel about it. I’d love to, selection and form pending, continue playing Test cricket as long as we can,” he said.