Starc used injury lay-off to improve bowling

The left-armer fractured his foot and required surgery on his ankle late in 2015, but was included in a 16-man squad for the one-day international tri-series against West Indies and South Africa in June.

Australia paceman Mitchell Starc.

Australia paceman Mitchell Starc has used his frustrating injury lay-off as an opportunity to work on his bowling action.

The left-armer fractured his foot and required surgery on his ankle late in 2015, but was included in a 16-man squad for the one-day international tri-series against West Indies and South Africa in June.

Starc was one of the most impressive performers with the white ball last year, and won Player of the Tournament in Australia's Cricket World Cup triumph.

And Starc has used his time on the sidelines productively.

"One of the positives of this little lay-off has been that I’ve been able to talk to a few people and discuss things that I might be able to change or get better at - little tweaks in my action that might improve my bowling," Starc told reporters.

"That's a positive that I can work on away from cricket, away from competitive games.

"It's about looking at those positives and being able to come back bigger and stronger and hopefully back to the form that I was in before I [got injured].

"It's just about getting back to that consistency that I started to find when I broke down. I thought I was getting to that stage where everything was starting to click.

"It's a bit frustrating that I broke down then but there are good signs for the future if I can get back to that."