‘I don’t read anything’: Mitchell Starc amidst criticism around his performance in IPL 2024

Kolkata Knight Riders registered their fourth win of IPL 2024 season in five outings on Sunday (April 14) beating Lucknow Super Giants comfortably. They chased down 162 runs with eight wickets and more than four overs in hand even as Phil Salt starred with the bat for them. Another overseas recruit Mitchell Starc finally had a good day at the office as he picked up three wickets for just 28 runs in his four overs.

Prior to this match, Starc had picked only two wickets in four matches but the left-arm pacer looked at his best for the first time against LSG. He is the most expensive player of IPL ever with KKR splurging INR 24.75 crore at the auction for him. But his average of 77 and an economy of 11 before the start of LSG clash drew criticism. But the 34-year-old isn’t worried much about all of that and is concentrating on his own game.

“I don’t read anything, so that doesn’t bother me. It’s T20 cricket; for the guys who have played a lot of Test cricket, this is definitely a lot easier physically,” he said. “It’s more [about] getting used to the tactical side of it. I haven’t played a lot of T20 cricket in the last couple of years, so it has probably taken me a little bit longer than I would have liked to get back into the rhythm of things and make a better impact. So today was nice in that regard,” Starc said while speaking after the match.

For the unversed, the fast bowler is playing in the IPL for the first time since 2015 and certainly has taken some time to find his groove. However, with the T20 World Cup set to start within six days after the end of IPL 2024, there are already talks about his workload. “I’m 34, so I’m pretty good with my workloads. I’ve been doing this [for] a long time. We play again on Tuesday, and I think that’s a feature of T20 cricket. Whether you have a good day or a bad day, games come around so quickly that you can’t really think about what’s been; you quickly focus on the next game,” Starc further added.

Starc is a crucial part of Australia across all the formats and the board will have one eye on his fitness, more so after Mitchell Marsh, their designated captain for the T20 World Cup got injured recently. The latter has also been called back to assest the extent of the hamstring tear.