Australia’s Mitchell Starc could end his eight-year long absence from the Indian Premier League (IPL) as the fast bowler looks to prepare himself in the T20 format leading up to the World Cup 2024 in the West Indies and United States in June.
Starc is eyeing a comeback in the IPL where he has played 27 matches, taken 34 wickets at an average of 20.38 and an economy of 7.17.
“Amongst other things, it’s a great lead up to the T20 World Cup,” Starc, who has put himself in the highest bracket of INR 2 crore base price in IPL 2024 Auction, had told the Willow Talk cricket podcast.
“And it’s somewhat of a quiet winter next year … in comparison to this winter, so I think a perfect opportunity to put my name in.”
Starc was first picked by the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in 2014 for INR 5 crore. He played two seasons for RCB. Post 2015, for variety of reasons including injuries, prioritising international games and family time, the left-arm pacer hasn’t been part of the tournament.
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He missed IPL 2016 due to an injury, opted out of the auction in the following year. In IPL 2018, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) bought him for INR 9.40 crore, but he ended up missing the season due to an injury. He was among several Australians who opted out of IPL in 2019 ahead of the ODI World Cup. Since 2020, he has given the T20 League a miss.
The pacer has been vocal about his desire to play 100 Test matches for Australia even if it comes at the cost of missing out on attractive IPL deals.
“To choose not to do certain things to prolong playing for Australia, I’ve tried to be smart about that,” Starc had told cricket.com.au ahead of this year’s Ashes series.
“Yeah, the money’s nice, but I’d love to play 100 Test matches. Whether I get there or not, I don’t know, but that would be a nice one to tick off,” the 33-year-old had said.
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