Kolkata Knight Riders' pace spearhead for the IPL 2024 (Indian Premier League) season, Mitchell Starc, has been under a lot of scrutiny for the way he has performed so far but the mentor of the side, Gautam Gambhir, is not bothered about it.
The KKR mentor mentioned that Starc is a big threat to the opposition and four games do not make him a "bad bowler". Gambhir opined that Starc has bowled some really "tough overs" and he will "create an impact" in the games to follow.
"We've got three wins out of four. Why shouldn't I be happy with everyone's performance? See, people have bad days, people have good days. Ultimately, it's the team that needs to win and we've got decent results in the first four games of the competition and we all know how big a threat Mitchell Starc is," said Gambhir in a pre-match press conference.
"Four games don't make him a bad bowler, four games do not make him a good bowler either. So, I know what impact he can create and what impact he will create in the competition."
Gambhir defended Starc, who is the most expensive player in the history of the Indian Premier League auction by saying that the Aussie speedster has "bowled some tough overs" for the team and his best will come at some stage in the tournament.
"T20 cricket is all about bowlers getting thrashed. We've got three wins out of four. In a team sport, it's the wins that matter and tomorrow it might be a completely different day or probably going forward it will be a completely different day. An individual can have a brilliant performance and if the team doesn't end up winning then probably there's no reason why you should talk about the individual performance," he mentioned.
"I feel Mitchell Starc has done reasonably okay. I think he has bowled some tough overs and he will create an impact," he concluded.
