New Delhi: Australian speedster Mitchell Starc has expressed his displeasure at being dropped for the crucial T20 World Cup Super Eight clash against Afghanistan in West Indies which cost them the game. Starc said that he was not one bit amused by the team management’s decision.
Australian suffered a shocking 21-run loss against the Afghans, which dealt a massive blow to the side’s chances of entering the semifinals. The Australian team had replaced Starc with Ashton Agar for the game but the spinner only managed to keep down runs and could not take any wickets.
“No — two World Cups in a row,” Starc was quoted as saying by Sydney Morning Herald on Willow Talk podcast when quizzed about his omission and whether he was amused by the decision.
“Just the match-up, the team management saw previous games on that ground in St Vincent with spin playing a part and obviously Ash (Ashton) and the left-armer enticing them to make a change,” he added.
Starc dropped for second time in a row
This happened to be the second occasion in a row where the lethal pacer was dropped for a T20 World Cup match against the Afghans, with the last one being in Adelaide in 2022 where also the hosts failed to reach the last four stage.
The pace spearheads of the team, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins along with spinner Agar were unable to break the partnership between openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran, who ended up making 118 runs.
“I think Ash bowled pretty well in the powerplay. They probably played the spin quite well and batting first probably assessed the conditions a little bit better than we did, and had a couple of stumbles that in the end cost us the game,” said Starc.
“It was probably the fielding that cost us again that game. That meant we had to win against India and we fell short there as well.”
Australia then went on to lose to India in Super Eights and were later eliminated from the competition.
Australian suffered a shocking 21-run loss against the Afghans, which dealt a massive blow to the side’s chances of entering the semifinals. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
