On the third day of the Boxing Day Test match between Australia and India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, star pacer Mitchell Starc was seen gripping his back. In the first innings, the speed spearhead bowled 25 overs, giving up 86 runs without taking any wickets. Although he has bowled the difficult overs and captain Pat Cummins has occasionally relied on his partner, Starc, who turns 35 in a month, may have been overwhelmed by the effort.
In the meantime, Scott Boland provided an update regarding Starc’s injury worry, stating that Australia International was well following a break. The pacemaker can play despite a lot of discomfort, he continued, adding that it was just a minor ache.
Boland thinks Mitchell Starc will be alright for the rest of the game and pointed out that pacers rarely bowl without any problems.
“He’s all right. In the press conference following Day 3, Boland stated, “I think he’s going to be fine. He just had a little niggle somewhere in his back or rib, somewhere back there, I don’t know, but he came out after the break and was bowling 140km/h.”
You can certainly tell that he can play through a lot of discomfort because he has now participated in nearly 90 Test matches. Additionally, there are very few games in which you can play as a fast bowler without experiencing any niggles. He has the ability to bowl at the same pace even when he is quite sore, which is a fantastic quality,” he continued.
Notably, on Day 4 of the Test, Starc did not bowl. Nathan Lyon was employed from the other end, and Cummins opened the bowling. Starc’s injury, however, has reignited discussions about workload management. Veteran analyst Harsha Bhogle pointed out that Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar’s partnership helped India’s top pacer Jasprit Bumrah recover crucially, but Starc bowled back-to-back two days, and we will soon resume play as Australia looks to set a high target and defend it on the last day.
India
