Mitchell Starc waiting for Ashwin and co to tour down-under

Australian left-arm pace bowler Mitchell Starc, who has been ruled out of the tour due to a stress fracture in his foot just before the third test at Ranchi. The pacer, before leaving to Australia had an on-field banter altercation with Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. The pacer, however, has announced that there is a lot of banter left for the Indians when they come down under to Australia.

Starc was given quite a send-off by the offie during the second Test at Bengaluru when the offie started tapping on his forehead soon after the pacer’s dismissal.

The gesture was a counter-reaction to the one given by Starc to Indian opener Abhinav Mukund after the latter miscued a short ball to the boundary. The gesture being the same with Starc advising the opener to expect more short deliveries to his head. It was, however, not the first time that the left-arm bowler has been involved in an argument with the opposition, even targeting captain Kohli in the first Test of the tour.

“I look forward to bowling to Ashwin in Australia,” he told The Back Page on Fox Sports. “(I might) take his advice and hit him on the badge. “(The on-field banter has) probably come a lot more from their side than ours. “There was a lot made of it before the series and there was so much hype before the series. I think we’ve just gone about the cricket that we have done for a long period of time now.

“(Australia’s fighting draw in the third Test) shows how we are as a group and the Indians have come hard, it’s almost a defence mechanism for them. “We won the first Test match, we (were there) for the challenge, they were scared of us beating them in India the way they’ve been playing “So it was almost like a defence mechanism for them and they obviously came out in the second Test match and performed really, really well and got back in (the series).”

Starc was also quick to point out that the Australian team is more than capable of defeating the Big Boys at home after a fantastic display in the first test at Pune, following up with a decent display in the second leaving the fourth day out of the picture.

Australia followed it up with an outstanding batting display in the first innings at Ranchi before India raked up a herculean score of 600 with the help of Cheteswar Pujara and Wriddhiman Saha. Australia’s mini-collapse almost gave Virat Kohli a chance to attack the team with attacking field set-ups for Peter Handscomb and Shaun Marsh.

However, the partnership between Handscomb and Marsh ensured that Australia would not give up on the pitch which seemed to be turning square, although not on the same venom as the one in Bengaluru.

While the reports suggest that the Aussie left-arm quick will be a doubt for the Champions Trophy in June, Starc himself is adamant of regaining full fitness before the ICC event kicks off. Further, it would be interesting to see what Starc has in store for Ashwin in India’s next tour to Australia.