Australia’s premier speedster Mitchell Starc has given up millions in recent years by opting not to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL) in order to spend with family and wife Alyssa Healy, as well as, keep himself mentally and physically fresh for the national duty.
Starc last played in the IPL back in 2015 and took 20 wickets in that season. Well, the left-arm pacer might have been turning down the IPL money over the years but hasn’t closed the doors on a potential comeback to the world’s biggest T20 competition in the future.
Ahead of the three-match ODI series against the West Indies, starting on July 21, Starc said he used the time – IPL window – to be at his best and ready to go for the Australian duty, as well as, spend time with his wife Alyssa, who is also an Australia women cricketer.
As reported by Cricbuzz, Starc said on Monday (July 19): “I’m a multi-format player and those are a few weeks where we can get away from the game and refresh mentally and physically.”
The pacer further added, “Alyssa, my wife, plays as well and we have conflicting schedules. A lot of the time that’s the only time we can spend at home together. Over the last few years, I’ve used that time so I can be at my best or ready to go for Australian duty and not have to pick and choose through tours.
That was certainly the case with the previous IPL and I’ll keep assessing it year by year and see what the schedule looks like and where I’m at with my cricket and my body and see how we go from there.”
Meanwhile, Starc refused to comment on the senior players including David Warner and Glenn Maxwell, decision to skip the West Indies tour citing personal reasons after returning from the IPL 2021.
The senior bowler stated, “I've got my own personal views but, at the same time, each of those guys are gonna have different situations, which, I guess, determine their decisions. Obviously, you throw in conversations about different bubbles and quarantine periods and the like. Obviously, that would have come into it with some guys' decisions.”
Australia is in the West Indies without their several star cricketers and ended up losing the T20I series 4-1, though, the pacer insisted that the tourists have a strong line-up and want to win the ODI series there.
Starc said, “Ultimately, we're here with a strong group of Australian guys, some young inexperienced guys with a chance to perform and potentially lock down some World Cup spots. So yeah sure you've got some guys still at home doing whatever they're doing throughout the time, you've got some young exciting cricketers [who have] performed through domestic cricket, now they've got their chance to nail down that spot so it's exciting for them.”
He concluded, “I guess the depth of Australian cricket giving these guys some experiences, playing against a really strongly West Indian side, certainly in the T20s and now moving on to the One-Dayers so, yeah, I guess I've certainly got my own opinions that I'll keep to myself, but for the moment it is what it is, we've got this group here, we're looking to still win series, and we've got some things to improve on from the T20s which we can do in One-Day games.”
(Cricbuzz inputs)
