In light of their loss to Afghanistan, Australia’s captain and coach justified the “tough decision” to bench Mitchell Starc. As a result, they now depend on other outcomes going into their last Super Eight match against India in St. Lucia on Monday.
Australia selected Ashton Agar to replace Starc as a second specialist spinner with Adam Zampa, and decided to play just two frontline seamers, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, on a sluggish, turning track at St. Vincent. While Agar bowled well, collecting 0 for 17 in his four overs, Afghanistan’s opening partnership of 118 runs highlighted the lack of Starc as a new-ball strike bowler.
“Removing Mitch Starc from a team is never an easy decision,” Australia’s coach Andrew McDonald stated. However, based on how the game played out, Ashton was a good fit under these circumstances, so we had to create space for him. Since we found out we would be playing at this location, we most likely started planning and getting ready for the fact that we would require more than eight overs of spin on that surface.
“We’ve said right from the start of the tournament that we’ve got 15 guys here, and we’ll pick a team that we think can win us the game in those certain conditions, and everything pointed towards Ash,” Australia’s captain, Mitchell Marsh, said of Starc, calling him “unlucky” to have missed out. The truth is that someone is always unfortunate to lose out when you have this much skill.”
Afghanistan got off to a solid start in their innings, scoring 40 for 0 in the first six overs despite Agar’s two tight powerplay overs. In comparison, Australia’s start was 33 for 3 after six, losing Travis Head, David Warner, and Marsh himself. Despite this, Marsh persisted, saying, “I don’t think the game was won or lost in the powerplay tonight.”
McDonald declared that the circumstances in St. Vincent had been as Australia had anticipated and that it was pointless to try to determine what could have occurred if Starc had been chosen against Afghanistan. Because of the potency of Afghanistan’s spin assault and the characteristics of the Arnos Vale Ground pitch, they had long designated the match as potentially scary.
Making the correct judgments throughout a World Cup is a skill in and of itself; you can’t play the same game twice. Nathan Ellis or Mitchell Starc cannot be added and the outcome of the game could not have been predicted. We went to Ash and supported him, and we have complete faith in everyone we call upon in the next fifteen minutes to complete the mission at hand.”
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