'Everyone has their choice' - Ex-India batter on Mitchell Starc's surprise T20I retirement

Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra recently discussed the likely explanation for Mitchell Starc retiring from the T20I format. Starc played a total of 65 T20Is for Australia. He announced the news to Cricket Australia on Tuesday, September 2, who then put out a made an official announcement of Starc's comments, marking an end to his career as the second-highest wicket-taker for Australia in the format.

Chopra reasoned Starc would have most likely wanted to play the upcoming Ashes as well as the ODI World Cup in 2027 which would have in turn prompted him to sacrifice the shortest format of the game. He also believes that playing in the Ashes and the 50-over World Cups is of a much higher priority for English and Australian cricketers, as they have been following the traditional formats for long enough. 

"Everyone has their own choice, and I feel the Australian and English cricketers don't say goodbye to the Ashes so early. It's a question of tradition. They are hard-wired in such a way that the Ashes is very, very important, and the ODI World Cup is very, very important. That's how you grow up," stated Chopra in a video posted on his YouTube channel.

The cricketer-turned-commentator, however, was left mildly surprised that Starc did not wait for the T20 World Cup, which will take place in India and Sri Lanka in early 2026. He also pointed out the fact that the left-arm seamer has not played as many T20Is as would have been expected. 

"I am a little surprised. Mitchell Starc could have played a World Cup and said goodbye after that, but he didn't wait for the World Cup. To be fair, he hasn't played too many T20Is. He is an absolute gun bowler, but he is also someone who can be very expensive from time to time. You see how and wow with him many times in the shortest format," he added.

In conclusion, the cricketer-turned-commentator opined that it would have been much better had the likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma retired from ODIs to play red-ball internationals for a little more amount of time, since they had already called a time on their T20I careers in June 2024. 

"To each, his own. Personally, I am still not convinced that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma did the right thing by leaving Tests. In my opinion, they should have continued playing Tests and left ODIs if they wished, because ODIs don't happen much. Otherwise, they could have continued playing ODIs as well. They had already left T20Is," remarked Chopra.

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While Starc will still feature for Australia in Tests and ODIs, Rohit and Kohli will only play ODIs after retiring from T20Is (after the T20 World Cup 2024) and Tests (before the five-match series against England). The two teams will next face each other in the white-ball series in October-November later this year.