Injured Mitchell Starc Eyes Champions Trophy Return

Mar 21, 2017 at 5:55 PM

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Injured Mitchell Starc Eyes Champions Trophy Return

Australia’s speedster Mitchell Starc is hopeful for a return to international cricket in Champions Trophy, after he suffered a stress fracture in his right foot during the second Test against India in Bengaluru. By the virtue of his injury, he was ruled out of the series with an immediate effect and was thus replaced by Pat Cummins.

Talking to Fox Sports post the drawn Test in Ranchi, Starc revealed the injury isn’t that serious as compared to the one he suffered 18 months back.

Starc, 27, fractured his foot during the inaugural Pink-Ball Test against New Zealand in Adelaide in 2015, and was out of action for nearly eight months until June next year. In the following year, he suffered a leg wound in a training mishap and required 30 stitches, resulting in him sitting out again for around a month’s time.

Though, this time Starc seems happy he doesn’t have to wear an additional boot for it.

“It’s OK, it’s not snapped in half like the one 18 months ago. I did the third metatarsal last time, this one is the fourth. It’s a nice fracture, but it’s not displaced so I don’t need (to wear) a boot fortunately. So I’m still in the gym and getting ready for when I do come back. When that might be, I see the specialist on Thursday and hopefully I’ll get a clearer picture then. But the Champions Trophy is definitely not out of the picture at this time.”

Also, Starc talked about the heated vibes exchanged between both camps and how and where it all started. He believes beating India received in the Pune Test had things going for them. A side moving with such superiority if gets beaten can disturb their mindset and attitude, Starc thinks so.

Going by the crux of his words, the change in India’s attitude from the following Tests had much to do with Australia breaking shackles, even after starting as underdogs in the series.

He further took a jibe at Ravichandran Ashwin over the forehead point incident which happened during the Bengaluru Test. After Ashwin had Starc in second innings, he pointed towards the middle of his head, the way Starc did to Abhinav Mukund after bowling a lethal bouncer in the same match. Starc said he’ll look forward to bowl to Ashwin in the Champions Trophy.

“I look forward to bowling to Ashwin in Australia,” he said with a laugh. “(I might) take his advice and hit him on the badge. (The on-field banter has) probably come a lot more from their side than ours.”

Starc, who despite taking just five wickets in two games, was the difference between two sides with the bat. Observing Australia’s intent in the last Test in Ranchi, Starc said the boys played as a team and showed a big heart, something the Indians didn’t expect them to do early on.

Now before the final Test in Dharamsala, Starc feels India will use the defense mechanism to put their best foot forward in the series.

“There was a lot made of it before the series and there was so much hype before the series. I think we’ve just gone about the cricket that we have done for a long period of time now. (Australia’s fighting draw in the third Test) shows how we are as a group and the Indians have come hard, it’s almost a defense mechanism for them. We won the first Test match, we (were there) for the challenge, they were scared of us beating them in India the way they’ve been playing. So it was almost like a defense mechanism for them and they obviously came out in the second Test match and performed really, really well and got back in (the series).”

The fourth and final Test of the Border-Gavaskar series will begin from Saturday, March 25.

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