Mitchell Starc has admitted that losing Cameron Green for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 will change things. The Australian quick is currently getting ready to play his first Sheffield Shield match in three years and opened up about how the bowling line-up would look come November 22.
How Green’s injury changes things
Starc, like most, remains unsure what Australia’s bowling line-up would like. Mitchell Marsh is expected to bowl, but the all-rounder is injury-prone. Marsh bowled just once in his last nine international matches and had a hamstring niggle earlier in the month. Starc expects that Nathan Lyon will have to take on Green’s workload. It’s something the off-spinner has done in the past, and we might see him do that during the 5-match India vs Australia Test series.
“It will always change the dynamic when you take a genuine allrounder like a Cameron Green, or with England when you take a Ben Stokes out. When you have that genuine allrounder who has been part of a group for a while … you get into a bit of a routine of having that extra bowling option,” Starc told the Australian Associated Press.
“I don’t know what the dynamic of that line-up is going to be, there is a lot of talk around that opening spot and Mitch (Marsh) bowling as well. It’s not completely foreign. We’ve had series in the past where we haven’t had an allrounder at all. We’ve had to take some of that workload, and Gaz (Nathan Lyon) has probably had to bowl a bit extra as well,” the left-arm pacer added.
Focus on workload
Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Lyon, and Starc aren’t getting younger. Cummins is the youngest among them, at 31. As captain, he might have to play all the games, but going with just four bowlers in five Tests won’t be easy. Starc understands they might have to rest and rotate bowlers, but a lot also depends on how they recover and the pitches offered for the matches.
“That’s been the mindset for a number of years now, with overseas tour or a home series and the mentality of how gruelling a summer or series can be. It’s been spoken about, if you have four or five Tests that go four days, the extra day between games (can be important). There is obviously a big gap between the first and second Test and the third and fourth Test. That may play a part as well. We don’t know what wickets we’ll get, we don’t know how successful or unsuccessful we will be.” Starc concluded.
