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New Delhi, July 11 (HS). Australia's left-arm fast bowler Mitchell Starc said that he was unhappy at being dropped for the men's T20 World Cup Super Eight match against Afghanistan last month. In this match played in St. Vincent, the Australian team had to face defeat by 21 runs.
Australia had replaced Starc with left-arm spin allrounder Ashton Agar in the crucial match against Afghanistan to keep the batsmen in check on a slow spin-friendly pitch. But the move did not yield the desired results as Agar went wicketless while openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran shared a 118-run opening stand, their third century partnership in the competition.
Speaking to the Willow Talk podcast, Starc said, “The team management had seen the role of spin in the previous games on that ground in St. Vincent and obviously seeing this, Ash was brought into the team. I think Ash bowled quite well in the power play. Probably the Afghanistan batsmen played spin very well and assessed the conditions a little better than us while batting first, due to which we lost the match. Perhaps it was due to fielding that we lost that match. It meant that we had to win against India and we fell behind there too.”
Following poor fielding, Australia's batting faltered under captain Rashid Khan and fast-bowling allrounder Gulbadin Naib and they lost the match, putting their semifinal hopes in jeopardy. Australia then suffered a defeat to eventual champions India in their last Super Eight game in St Lucia, which confirmed their exit from the competition.
Starc, who won IPL 2024 with the Kolkata Knight Riders, was also unhappy with the scheduling and pre-seeding arrangement in the tournament.
He said, “We finished ahead of England and finished second. Suddenly, you are in a different group. The logic was that it was because it was very difficult to travel in the West Indies, so fans knew where your team was playing. So then why don't you extend the tournament and then spread it back?”
“We had two night games and the third was a day game, so it wasn’t the best preparation. Our flight from St Vincent was delayed, it was a 90-minute drive from the airport to the hotel in St Lucia, and then we had toss at 10am. I think it was probably misunderstood by the organisers, the fact that the first half of the tournament was more spread out, and then you get to the Super Eights and travelling around the West Indies is probably not the easiest thing,” he said.