Australia assistant coach Daniel Vettori has revealed why speedster Mitchell Starc was not picked in the crucial T20 World Cup Super 12 fixture against Afghanistan at Adelaide Oval on Friday.
Notably, it was a do-or-die game for the defending champions to keep their semifinal hopes alive, and many experts and fans were surprised by Starc’s exclusion from the final playing XI. Further, the Australian management went with Kane Richardson, who had not played a single match in the 2022 T20 World Cup before, to fill in for Starc.
When asked the reason behind such a decision, Vettori reckoned it was nothing but a tactical move as Richardson has been better in the death overs compared to Starc.
“It was a tactical decision [to leave out Starc]. We brought in Kane to play the role he executed tonight at the back end of the powerplay, looking at the death overs where Kane has been exceptional in the past. We were looking to use Josh Hazlewood at the start and implement a plan around him, and Pat [Cummins] being effective with the new ball and pushed Mitch into a role where he’s competing with Kane Richardson, especially at the death where everyone thought Kane excels,” said Vettori after the match.
Notably, Starc’s T20I economy rate in the death overs has jumped up from 8.66 to 10.30 in the last three years, while Richardson’s figure is 9.50. However, in a game against England when Australia needed to win by a huge margin, Richardson ended up conceding 16 in one of the death overs he bowled and 48 overall in the contest.
“It was more around the effectiveness of Hazlewood and Cummins at the top and their ability to take the new ball and be wicket-takers, and therefore that pushed Starcy into a different role, and he obviously came up against Kane Richardson. It was thought among the hierarchy that Kane is exceptional at the death, and we’ll utilise him there as opposed to Mitch. Players can [be flexible], particularly in their home country where you have a bigger sample size; you’ve seen Kane in the Big Bash and internationals and understand how effective he can be in this format. I think we’ll reflect on that, and Kane would say he probably missed a couple at the backend of two overs. But apart from that, the majority of his spell was what we expected. So if that had been tidied up, he would have had a great day,” added Vettori.
