If Ben Stokes doesn't play, it will be good for us: Mitchell Starc

Australian pacer Mitchell Starc who is set to make a come back in competitive cricket has said that Ben Stokes’ absence from the English line up will be a big blow for English cricket. The English all-rounder was initially named in the Ashes squad but a clip of the brawl got him arrested and his place in the national side is under clouds.

Stokes and batsman Alex Hales were handed indefinite bans by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), while Stokes’ county club Durham has also shadowed themselves from the fight night episode. Starc spoke highly of the English all-rounder and said that the all-rounder’s skills are world renowned.

Starc on Stokes

“Everyone in world cricket knows how good a player he is. He makes the team much more balanced. If he doesn’t play , it is a big blow to them and good for us”, Starc said.

“He is going to be up there. His ability with the ball, especially in England where you can reverse it, swing it both ways. He also bowls at a good pace. he likes to play all around the world and loves to get into contests” the pacer added.

“Stokes a big part of their team and if he’s on the plane we’ll assess him, otherwise we don’t need to worry about it,” he said.”I’m sure they can [compete without Stokes]. He probably makes their team a bit more balanced but he’s not the be all and end all of their team. There’s plenty of guys we need to worry about.” Starc pointed.

“It’s a very different Australian team and an opportunity for a few of the younger, less experienced guys to get on top of them much like Mitch did to some of their batsmen through that series,” said the 27-year-old,

“They’ve got [Joe] Root and [Alastair] Cook up the top who’ve played a lot of cricket and probably their main guys with the bat.The guys in the top order around them are pretty inexperienced and hopefully we can exploit that in our conditions and, if we can, really get on top of them in the first Test like Mitch did a couple of years ago.” he said.

Strong bowling pack

“We’ve got a really solid attack who complement each other. If it’s not me, you’ve got Pat Cummins who can bowl fast bouncers and Josh Hazlewood bowling consistent line and length. It’ll be much like that attack did when Johnno took all those wickets, I think we complement each other really well.Throw in Jackson Bird and Nathan Coulter-Nile’s back bowling really well, so five really good guys there and if Patto [James Pattinson] is fit to go, six.” Starc mentioned.