Mitchell Starc has expressed his disappointment on being left out from the playing XI during Australia's T20 World Cup 2024 clash with Afghanistan. The left-arm speedster was forced to make way for left-arm off-spinner Ashton Agar as the team management thought the surface at Arnos Vale in St. Vincent and Grenadines would assist the spinners more compared to the seamers.
Notably, it was the second occasion when Starc was left out of the playing XI against Afghanistan for a T20 World Cup match. He was also not included in the XI for Australia's T20 World Cup 2022 clash against the Afghans on home soil.
"No -- two World Cups in a row," Starc was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald on the Willow Talk podcast when asked about the team management's decision.
"Just the match-up, they (team management) saw previous games on that ground in St Vincent with spin playing a part and obviously Ash (Ashton) and the left-armer enticing them to make a change," he added.
"I think Ash bowled pretty well in the powerplay. They probably played the spin quite well and batting first probably assessed the conditions a little bit better than we did, and had a couple of stumbles that in the end cost us the game," said Starc.
"It was probably the fielding that cost us again that game. That meant we had to win against India and we fell short there as well."
The left-armer also expressed his displeasure at the pre-seeding that saw them end up in a totally different group for the Super Eights despite finishing their group on top.
"We finished ahead of England (in the group stage) and end up where we were pre-seeded as the second side. All of a sudden, you're in a different group.
"The argument was it was because it was so hard to get around the West Indies, so fans knew where your team was playing.
"So then why don't you have the chock-a-block tournament at the front and then spread it out at the back end? We had the two night games and the third was a day game, so it wasn't the best preparation.
"We had a delayed flight out of St Vincent, it was a 90-minute drive from the airport to the hotel in St Lucia, and then we had a 10 o'clock toss."
