Mitchell Starc sustains a knee injury during training session

Australia’s fast bowling spearhead Mitchell Starc had to leave the training session midway in Sydney today after he sustained a cut to his leg. The left-arm fast bowler was performing a training drill at Hurstville Oval in Sydney’s south when he dived forward to field a ball and fell awkwardly on his left knee, landing on a piece of training equipment near the pop-up net.

Medical support was quickly called for Starc and he is currently under supervision at St George hospital. The injury wasn’t any bruise and the medical staff, which comprised of two doctors and a physio, had to phone for an ambulance.

Starc has no immediate assignments waiting for him after he was rested for the ODI series against Proteas South Africa. Starc and fellow fast bowler Josh Hazlewood were given a month’ time off after the conclusion of the Sri Lanka tour. Australian selector Rod marsh reasoned that he wanted his top players in good condition for the whole Australian summer.

Not touring South Africa would, however, not mean that the in-form Starc will not get a chance to have a go at the Proteas. He will be back in action in the Commonwealth Bank Test Series against the Proteas which starts in 49 days at the WACA Ground.

Starc was the star performer of Australia’s 0-3 Test series defeat in Sri Lanka and the subsequent ODI and T20 series won by Australia. In 11 matches across all formats on the Sri Lanka tour, Starc took 44 wickets at less than 16 runs apiece.

He set a new world record as the fastest bowler to 100 one-day international wickets, reaching the milestone in his 52nd match to beat an 18-year-old record held by Pakistan’s Saqlain Mushtaq.

Australia will play three-Test series against South Africa. They will then play New Zealand at home and away ODI competitions followed by a five-match ODI series against Pakistan and three T20s against Sri Lanka. They will then finally come back to Asia again for a four-Test tour of India.