Australia’s injured left-arm fast bowler Mitchell Starc seems to be getting bored on the sidelines as he sparks up the controversy in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy between India and Australia. Starc and Ashwin had a little spat of their own in the second Test at Pune. It all started when Starc pointed his finger to his head after getting the wicket of opener Abhinav Mukund. In response, Ashwin got the wicket of Starc and did a similar gesture getting back at the 27-year-old.
The image went viral on social media as Ashwin avenged his teammate Mukund who had made a comeback into the team after a gap of 6 years. Starc told a leading news-publishing website, “I look forward to bowling to Ashwin in Australia (laughs). (I might) take his advice and hit him on the badge. (The on-field banter has) probably come a lot more from their side than ours.”
Mitchell Starc is hopeful of returning for the Champions Trophy in June. Get the latest on his injury here https://t.co/CwtLv15g1k #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/O1bhT65JjL
— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) March 21, 2017
He also clarified Australia’s sledging and mocking and said, “There was a lot made of it before the series and there was so much hype before the series. I think we’ve just gone about the cricket that we have done for a long period of time now. (Australia’s fighting draw in the third Test) shows how we are as a group and the Indians have come hard, it’s almost a defence mechanism for them.”
Starc lauded Australia’s match-saving attempt in the fourth innings at Ranchi. “Australia’s fighting draw in the third Test) shows how we are as a group and the Indians have come hard, it’s almost a defence mechanism for them,” the left-handed pacer said.
And then he added more fuel to the controversy again as he mentioned: “We won the first Test match, we (were there) for the challenge, they were scared of us beating them in India the way they’ve been playing. So it was almost like a defence mechanism for them and they obviously came out in the second Test match and performed really, really well and got back in (the series).”
