“Keeping game plan and my role simple helps me a lot” – Mitchell Starc

It’s been a long wait for everyone between men’s T20 World Cups – five years – but it’s been even longer for Mitchell Starc who missed the 2016 event due to injury. With the World Cup beginning today, Starc goes approaches it with a clear mind when it comes to his white-ball game.

Starc talks about his White-Ball Cricket Experience

“I guess the white-ball formats are probably the ones that I’ve played the most consistently in comparison to Test cricket, or felt more at home for a longer period of time than in the red-ball game,” Starc said. “One of the things I take from all my cricket, across the three formats, is trying to keep my game plan and my role pretty simple.

“Certainly my role in white-ball cricket hasn’t changed a hell of a lot over the last 10 years and I think having that clarity there helps me keep it simple and know what I need to do for the team to get us in some really good positions.

“I’ve always tried to keep my cricket simple and I’m not someone who comes out with 24 different types of slow balls, certainly for T20 cricket. I’ve got a bit of speed on my side and focus on obviously my death bowling as well so I think that’s key for me, focus on doing a few things really well rather than doing a lot of things okay.”

Starc’s Recent T20I Matches

Starc played six of the 10 T20Is on the recent tours of West Indies and Bangladesh which brought him just four wickets (his form the ODIs in the Caribbean sandwiched in the middle was outstanding with 11 wickets in three matches) and during those games he became the first Australia men’s bowler to secure 50 T20I wickets.

That it has taken so long for an Australia bowler to make that mark is an indication of the comparative lack of matches in the format; Starc himself played just one T20I in a three-year period between late 2016 and late 2019.

However, in West Indies Starc secured Australia’s solitary victory of a tough series when he pulled out the type of over that could decent crunch moments of a World Cup as he restricted Andre Russell when there was 11 to defend. Starc trusts himself with the yorker – a delivery that has become his trademark with all colours of ball whether old or new – but knows there can be a fine line.

“It’s not one shoe fits all” – Starc

“I can’t sit here and say I’ve nailed the death every time,” he said. “I’ve certainly been beaten a number of times so for me the way to go about at the death is what your strengths are. What you see at the other end, it’s not one shoe fits all.

“I like to try and stick to what I can do really well. That could be different for any number of bowlers. Josh [Hazlewood] and Pat [Cummins] probably see it different to the way I see it. For me, I’m going stick to my strengths at the death and not worry too much about what other guys are doing at that stage of the game.”

Avishkar Govardhane