Ahead of the third Test between India and Australia which will be played from March 1 in Indore, Australia pacer Mitchell Starc said he still feels some discomfort in his finger after snapping a tendon in a fielding mishap in December, but he still expects to make it into the XI.

The left-armer suffered the injury to the middle finger of his bowling hand during the South Africa Test series at home and was sidelined as Australia lost the opening two tests of the four-match series against India.

Australia has already lost a host of players with Pat Cummins, David Warner, and Ashton Agar already returning back home for various reasons. However, the team management expects Starc and all-rounder Cameron Green to play in the third Test.

"There's going to be a level of discomfort for a while, I don't think it is going to be 100% for a fair while. But it's certainly good enough. The ball's coming out quite nicely and I feel I'm pretty much at full tilt.

It wouldn't be the first test match I've played in some sort of discomfort. If I only played when I was at 100% I would have only played five or 10 tests. I'm happy with where it's at and I've got enough of a pain threshold to deal with that stuff over the last 10 or 12 years,” Starc said.

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Cummins has returned home to be with his ailing mother and this will mean Steve Smith captaining the side in the third Test and possibly in the fourth as well. Starc felt the quicks still had a big role to play in the series, which has so far favored the spinners.

"It's been a challenge in the last couple of weeks, the first two tests. We do see spin playing a huge part in this test series but the quicks have still played a particular role, whether it be with the new ball, if it does reverse-swing, and being able to bowl that skiddy ball and bring the stumps into play.

So there's certainly an important role to play for the seam bowlers,” Starc added.

(Reuters inputs)