BGT 2023 | Won't be 100% fit in Indore Test but that’s nothing new to me, remarks Mitchell Starc

Having already gone 0-2 down in the four-match series against India, Australia will look to stage a fightback in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy when they come back after a nine-day break in Indore for the third Test. However, they won’t have the services of their full-time captain Pat Cummins, who returned home to be with his seriously ill mother. Mitchell Starc, who was sidelined since dislocating the tip of his middle finger during the Boxing Day Test against South Africa, is set to replace him.

Starc, in a recent conversation with ESPNCricinfo, proclaimed his finger is ‘good enough’ to play the Indore Test. However, the 33-year-old at the same time also admitted he is feeling ‘discomfort’ and won’t be fully fit anytime soon.

“There's going to be a level of discomfort… I don't think it is going to be 100% for a little while, but the ball is coming out quite nicely and I feel like I'm pretty much at full tilt,” Starc told ESPNCricinfo. 

"It's more the discomfort of the joint being restricted having been in a splint for six weeks and still having to be in a splint for another couple of weeks yet. That's probably the only part - dealing with the discomfort of it, getting the mobility back into it. That'll come over the next couple of weeks and it's progressed again, it's a progression each day I bowl. It's not a concern for me, the comfort levels - it's doing what I need it to do to be available to play.”

Further, Starc highlighted how he tackled discomforts for over a decade and mentioned he would have had a short career had he not accepted the challenges and moved on.

"It wouldn't be the first Test match I've played in some sort of discomfort. If I only played when I was at 100%, I would have only played five or ten Tests. I'm happy with where it's at and I've built up enough of a pain threshold to deal with that stuff over the last 10 or 12 years."

With an average of 30.20 and a strike rate of 50.4, Starc took five wickets in two matches when Australia last toured India for the Border-Gavaskar trophy in 2016/17. He will be keen to improve his numbers to help his side pull one back in order to stay in the comfort zone for advancing to the World Test Championship (WTC) final.