Australia vs India: Tim Paine backs Mitchell Starc despite his sub-standard performance

Australian captain Tim Paine spoke to the media on Monday evening after the loss against India in the first Test match at Adelaide. When asked about the mediocrity of fast bowler Mitchell Starc, the skipper came in support of the left-arm pacer who, in his opinion, would play a crucial role in the second Test match that starts at Perth Stadium on Friday, December 14.

With 323 runs required in the fourth innings, Australia didn’t have the greatest of starts as their top-order didn’t show enough patience and got out at regular intervals. In contrast to the front-line batsmen, Australia’s lower order batted responsibly and stitched crucial partnerships on Day 5 and took the game right down to the wire. In the end, the mountain was too high to climb as the hosts fell short by 31 runs to give India their first-ever victory in the first Test match of a series Down Under.

Starc under scrutiny

Although Australian bowlers picked up 20 wickets in the match, questions have been raised from all ends about their effectiveness, especially that of the fast-bowling trio comprising Starc, Cummins, and Hazlewood. The one under the biggest scrutiny of them all is Mitchell Starc, who looked very indifferent throughout the match and was not able to execute his lethal in-swingers which in turn enabled the Indian batsmen to face him more confidently.

Tim Paine, addressing the media on Monday, seemed to be worried about Starc’s inefficacy to trouble the quality Indian batting line-up but the wicket-keeper batsman sounded confident that the left-arm speedster would be at the peak of his prowess in the next test match at Perth. “From what I’m hearing, the wicket (at Perth) is going to be really fast… he(Starc) will be handful,” Paine mentioned.

Given that there is not much time left for the second Test match to begin, Australian team, under Tim Paine’s leadership, will be aiming to put the defeat behind and produce a stellar performance in Perth. The hosts would like to count on the 28-year old Mitchell Starc to cause serious damage to the Indian team, taking the fast nature of wickets at Perth into consideration.

~Written by Harikrishnan Sivakumar

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