Focused on our strengths: Starc

Mitchell Starc endured a tough time in the Test series against India Down Under and got a lot of flak from former Australia cricketers, including Shane Warne. He missed the subsequent limited-over leg in the same tour and didn’t travel to India for Australia’s five-match ODI series.

His last ODI before this World Cup was against South Africa in Hobart in November 2018 and the paceman seemed to have rediscovered his rhythm in his second appearance against the West Indies in the tournament. The right-arm quick picked up 5/46 that set up Australia’s second win in as many matches on Thursday and he appeared ready for India battle here at the Oval on Sunday, especially against Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.

“Look, it's different conditions again, we're playing at The Oval,” said Starc when asked about India’s win against South Africa and what possibly he could take from that game. “I guess taking a little bit out of how they played against South Africa yesterday, they played pretty well. I didn't see too much of their batting. I watched their bowling. Look, we go to The Oval tomorrow and have a look at conditions there.

“I guess talking about a bowling group, for us, it's to continue talking about what we do really well and what we can control. We know they're a fantastic team. They've got depth in their batting, they're strong throughout. Virat is obviously one of their key batsmen. Rohit scored a hundred, as well, so we'll have a chat about them as a bowling group, but at the same time we've got to remember what we can control, and that's, I guess, our strength and where we want to bowl to the conditions, as well,” he observed.