Veteran batter Cheteshwar Pujara praised seamer Mitchell Starc and said the 34-year-old has emerged as Australia’s “best bowler” in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) series, reported Star Sports. The series is currently tied at 1-1 after India secured a draw in the third Test in Brisbane. The Boxing Day Test begins on December 26 at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground. Starc made his Test debut in 2011 against New Zealand. The 34-year-old has since appeared in 92 Test matches and 176 innings, taking 372 wickets at an economy rate of 3.42.
The Australian has an excellent record against India, taking 62 wickets in 21 Test matches against them.
In the current BGT series, Starc has taken 14 wickets at an average of 22.86. He is currently the second highest run-scorer in the series after Bumrah.
In an exclusive interview with Star Sports, Pujara said that Starc has improved in the last 1.5 years.
“He was their best bowler in the series. And the way Mitchell Starc has played over the last 1-1.5 years, he has brought a lot of improvement. And he has many abilities. If we talk about my personal experience, when he played in the last series in 2018 or 2021, I felt that if he played against me, I would get injured. And now that he’s playing in this series, it feels like he’ll take it. wickets,” Pujara was quoted as saying by Star Sports.
He added that the Australian pacer has improved his line length and accuracy while bowling.
“So what’s the difference? The difference is that his line length and his accuracy have increased significantly. So the changes he has made to his game have made him a different player and he looks more dangerous than Cummins and Hazlewood,” he added.
The veteran cricketer also added that Starc gets tired in the second half of the innings, which helps lower hitters score runs.
“So we will have to take care of his performance, especially in the new games. In the first 5 overs, his first innings, he took the most wickets there. So if there is good batting in the first 5 overs, bring him in for the 2nd or 3rd over because he is getting tired. So the top order players still haven’t played in the 3rd or 4th spell. Those who have played are the lower middle order and tail. Enders and we saw that when Bumrah and Akash were batting, when Mitchell Starc was bowling, he was not as effective, so they will have to play their new game well,” he concluded.
Earlier last week, Australia made several changes to their squad given the absence of Josh Hazlewood and issues in the squad. The hosts added Beau Webster, J Richardson and Sam Constas to the squad ahead of the fourth Test match of the series.
After a slight side strain in the Perth Test ruled him out of the second Test in Adelaide, Hazlewood did return for the third match in Brisbane but suffered a calf strain during the warm-up on day four. He bowled one and left the field for a scan, which confirmed the severity of his injury, ruling him out of the series.
In the first Test in Perth, Hazlewood took five wickets, including four wickets in the first innings. Scott Boland is likely to take Hazlewood’s place in Australia’s playing eleven for the fourth Test at the MCG, starting December 26.
Team India: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VK), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, K.L. Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (wicket-keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.
Team Australia: Pat Cummins (centre), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Travis Head (VC), Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Constas, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Jay Richardson, Steve Smith (VC), Mitchell Stark, Beau Webster.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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