Darren Lehmann happy to risk Mitchell Starc at Hobart

Darren Lehmann, the incumbent Australian coach has said that the Australian team management would be willing to risk the probability of playing Mitchell Starc in the second Test match at Hobart. The Aussies find themselves trailing the series 1-0 after having suffered a dramatic loss in the opening Test at Perth.

Lehmann first mentioned that if Starc was uncomfortable bowling, then the management would take a call on what needed to be done. Darren Lehmann also added that this was a risk the Aussies would be happy to take, especially given the fact that they are trailing in the series.

“If we were going to do that [rest Starc], I wouldn’t have thought he would’ve bowled today,” Darren Lehmann, Australia’s coach, said on Thursday (November 10). “You’re speaking to the bowler first and foremost as well, if the player’s uncomfortable they’ll tell us, tell the medical staff first and then the selectors. That’s how open we are. Both players were really comfortable getting through the Test match, obviously, that didn’t happen. That’s not an ideal scenario but we’re all happy to take that risk.

“We make the final call at the end when we’re selecting them, but obviously we take all the information into account for that. We’ve just got to make sure we do the best we can. We just try to pick the best side each and every time.”

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“We need Australia to win, though, that’s first and foremost and we don’t get the chance to have a pre-season. So we’ve got to find one somewhere, wherever we get it. State medical staff and coaches are great, and they understand.”

“How we do that is usually based around some of the evidence that’s come out of research that bowlers are far more likely to get injured through workload spikes. If you double your workload from one week to the next, you’re far more likely to get injured the following week. We know on average they’re going to bowl about 120 balls an innings, about 240 balls a Test match. We work back from that in the preceding weeks to build them up so they’ve got that amount of workload under their belts so they don’t spike too much in a Test.

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