Ankle injury and ‘personal views’ behind Mitchell Starc’s Champions Trophy absence

Starc joined Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood in being absent from the event meaning Australia are without their big three fast bowlers leaving an inexperienced pace attack but a win against Afghanistan on Friday will put them in the semi-finals.

When the squad was announced, Cricket Australia said Starc had withdrawn for personal reasons with the full support of the board and the team.

Speaking for the first time since the squad was named, Starc did not expand on what the personal views were but talked about the World Test Championship final against South Africa being a priority.

“There’s a few different reasons, some personal views, and had a bit of ankle pain through the Test series [against Sri Lanka],” Starc told the Willow Talk podcast. “So just get that one right, obviously we’ve got the Test final coming up and a West Indies tour after that.

“There’s some IPL cricket as well, but my main one top of my mind is that Test final so get my body right, play some cricket in the next couple of months and then ready to go for the Test final.”

In Pakistan, where Starc toured in 2022, the Champions Trophy is being played under strict security measures which limit the movement of the players. Sides that come up against India also need to travel to Dubai with India playing all their matches at the same venue under the hybrid model agreed to ensure the tournament went ahead.

Starc has often put his body on the line for Australia. He fought through the pain of a side issue in the latter stages of the Test series against India and was then clearly limping during the second match in Galle earlier this month where he played both Tests as the lone specialist fast bowler.

If Starc plays the WTC final and all three Tests in West Indies he will earn his 100th cap in Jamaica during July. He also needs 18 more wickets to reach 400.

Should all three be available for the WTC final the selectors will face a tough decision on the make-up of the pace attack with Scott Boland having made a compelling case to be retained.

On the WTC concept itself, Starc admitted he had been underwhelmed by it during the first cycle but when Australia missed out due to a slow over-rate it quickly increased in significance although he believes the model needs amending.

“The first one being a new concept, I remember definitely, I was like, what’s this all about? It doesn’t mean much,” he said. “We’re trying to win every Test match, every Test series. And then we got close to it and we missed out and watching it on the TV, we all wanted to be a part of it. So that quickly changed.

“And then the second cycle, we made the final and obviously playing India on neutral territory, that was a big occasion for both teams, managed to get the chocolates that time. And now we find ourselves sitting [with] a chance to win it for the second time on the trot.

“I think the format needs some tinkering still. It’s a very hard one to fix, I guess, when you only play six series that contribute to the point system. You get the same points for home and away wins, it’s a percentage based model. So it’s an imperfect system. But I think two really good teams will be facing off in the final.”