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Mitchell Starc has stated that white-ball cricket will
take precedence over Test cricket in order to play Tests for as long as
feasible. He does not see the World Cup knockout stages as the end of his ODI
career.
Starc, who is at 23.17 for 230 ODI wickets, knows he
won’t be playing in the next 50-over World Cup in 2027 at the age of 37, but he
won’t be giving up on the game just yet. The next One Day Internationals (ODIs)
that Australia has scheduled are against the West Indies in February and a
visit of England in September of the following year. Pakistan is scheduled to
host the Champions Trophy in 2025.
“I’ll look to keep playing after this, but I
don’t doubt that I won’t be making the next World Cup. I’ve no vision for that.
Four years is a long,” he told reporters in Kolkata. “I’ve always
maintained that Test cricket is the top of the tree for me and I’ll drop off
the rest before I let go of Test cricket. For me [the semi-final] is just
another one-day game for Australia, it’s not the end of the road in one-day
cricket as yet for me.”
Away from his explosive exploits in 2015 and 2019,
Starc will be looking to help Australia overcome South Africa in Thursday’s
semi-final in order to secure a position in another World Cup final on November
19. This tournament has been far more difficult.
With an economy rate of 6.55 and 10 wickets taken at
43.90, he acknowledged that his performance was below par. However, he
disclosed that he has been experiencing some discomfort since the Ashes, but he
did not clarify if this was connected to the groyne and shoulder issues he
developed in England—the former of which prevented him from playing in South
Africa in September. He added that he was not the only fast bowler experiencing
a challenging World Cup.
“I certainly haven’t been at the level I would
have liked…or not the same level as the last two World Cups anyway, but now a
chance at the pointy end to impact again,” he said.
“Certainly bowling first on particular wickets,
the new ball with two fielders out I think has been almost the hardest time to
bowl. You get a bit of an understanding of the wicket as the game goes
on…that’s not a sob story, that’s the nature of one-day cricket.
“You’ve got two brand new balls on flat wickets,
that’s the nature of the World Cup if you look at the runs scored, or certainly
centuries scored, as opposed to five wickets taken, the ratios are heavily
skewed. Bowlers just have to find a way.”