Mitchell Starc on T20 World Cup Scheduling- “Suddenly You’re In a Different Group”

Australia replaced Starc with left-arm spin all-rounder Ashton Agar, for the crucial game against Afghanistan, which they further went on to lose.

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Australia’s left-arm fast-bowler Mitchell Starc said he was unhappy over being dropped for the men’s T20 World Cup Super Eight match against Afghanistan last month, adding that fielding eventually led to the 21-run defeat for the side. Australia replaced Starc with left-arm spin all-rounder Ashton Agar for the game against Afghanistan to tie their batters on a slow spin-adding pitch. However, that move didn’t yield desired result as Agar couldn’t manage to get any wickets, with openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zardan having an opening of 118 runs, which was also their third century stand of their competition.

“No – two World Cups in a row. Just the match-up, they saw previous games on that ground in St. Vincent with spin playin a part and obviously ash and the left-armer enticing them to make a change. 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 better than we did, and had a couple of stumbles that in the end cost us again that game. That meant we had to win against India and we fell short as well,” said Starc.

After a loose fielding show, Australia’s batting crumbled in front of captain Rashid khan and seam bowling all-rounder Gulbadin Naib. After that, Australia suffered a defeat to eventual champions India in their last Super Eight game at St. Lucia, which confirmed their elimination from the competition.

Starc was also unpleased with the scheduling and pre-seeding arrangements in the tournament that saw Australia advance to the Super Eights stage in Group 1.

“We finished ahead of England and will end up where we were pre-seeded as the second side. All of a sudden, you’re in a different group. The argument was it was because it was so hard to het around the West Indies, so fans knew where your team was playing. So then why don’t you have the chock-a-block tournament at the front and then spread it out at the back end?”

“We had the two night games and the third was a day game so it wasn’t the best preparation. We had a delayed flight out of St. Vincent, it was a 90-minute drive from the airport to the hotel in St. Lucia, and then we had a 10 o’clock toss.”

“I think that was probably maybe a misread (by organizers), the fact that the front half of the tournament was more spread out, and then you hit the Super Eights and travel around the West Indies is probably not the easiest thing to do, certainly not to travel home from,” Starc concluded.

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