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Australia pacer Mitchell Starc is one of the most threatening bowlers in world cricket when he is on the song. The left-arm quick can swing the ball upfront and can also bowl deadly yorkers at will. However, Starc’s potency in T20 cricket has suddenly gone down and this was the reason the pacer was benched in an all-important clash at the T20 World Cup 2022.
Starc was left disappointed at such treatment and had strong opinions which he talked about with the chair of selectors George Bailey. However, the pacer did not divulge the details of the conversation he had with Bailey. The pacer also said that he still has ambitions to play in the 2024 T20 World Cup.
“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.
“I still have ambitions to play T20 cricket for Australia but it is a long time to the next one and a lot of water to go under the bridge," he said. "So, we will face that when we get to that."
While the pacer continues to dream about representing Australia in the shortest format, Starc’s redundancy of not playing franchise cricket has not augured well with his plans. The left-arm pacer’s T20 numbers are going down match after match and this is the reason, he is not among the first to feature in the playing XI.
Many experts also pointed out this fact but when Starc was asked about his decision to skip IPL since 2015, the pacer said he has no regrets about it. Starc has said that even though not playing in T20 leagues might have affected his bowling, he is not bothered about his decision to give them a miss.
"It may have [hampered T20 bowling] but if I'd gone there, having no break and playing 12 months of the year, what does that affect? Do I break down? Does it affect my red-ball cricket? You can't just sit there and go 'he should go to the IPL' because he'd be a better T20 bowler. What's the downside of that? Do I give away a format of the game because I'm playing 12 months of the year? In my mind I don't regret any of those decisions not to go. I wouldn't change it,” said the pacer.