The probable reason behind Mitchell Starc‘s retirement from the Twenty20 International format was recently mentioned by former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra. Starc represented Australia in 65 Twenty20 Internationals. On Tuesday, September 2, he told Cricket Australia of the news. Cricket Australia then officially published Starc’s remarks, ending his career as Australia’s second-highest wicket-taker in the format.
According to Chopra, Starc would have probably preferred to participate in both the 2027 ODI World Cup and the next Ashes, which would have forced him to forgo the game’s shortest format. Additionally, he thinks that since English and Australian cricket players have been playing the traditional formats for a long enough period of time, they should have a far higher priority when it comes to playing in the Ashes and the 50-over World Cups.
“Everyone is free to choose, but I don’t think the English and Australian cricket players said farewell to the Ashes that quickly. It has to do with tradition. The Ashes and the ODI World Cup are extremely important to them because of their hardwired beliefs. In a video that was uploaded to his YouTube account, Chopra said, “That’s how you grow up.”
However, Starc’s decision to skip the T20 World Cup, which will be held in India and Sri Lanka in early 2026, startled the cricketer-turned-commentator a little. Additionally, he brought up the fact that the left-arm seamer hasn’t played as many Twenty20 Internationals as one may have anticipated.
“I am somewhat taken aback. Mitchell Starc didn’t wait for the World Cup, even though he could have competed in it and then called it quits.
He hasn’t played a lot of Twenty20 Internationals, to be fair. Although he is an extremely skilled bowler, he may occasionally be incredibly costly. In the quickest format, you can see how and wow with him several times,” he continued.
The cricketer-turned-commentator concluded by saying that, because Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma had already ended their T20I careers in June 2024, it would have been preferable if they had retired from ODIs to play red-ball internationals for a bit longer.
“To each his own.” In my opinion, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma did not make the correct decision by quitting Test cricket. Given how seldom ODIs are, I believe they should have kept playing Test matches and left if they so desired. They may have also carried on playing ODIs otherwise. Chopra said, “They had already left T20Is.”
Rohit and Kohli will only play ODIs after retiring from T20Is (after the T20 World Cup 2024) and Tests (before to the five-match series against England), although Starc will continue to play for Australia in both formats. Later this year, in October or November, the two teams will play each other in the white-ball series.
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