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Mitchell Starc conceded all-rounder Cameron Green‘s absence will make a difference for hosts Australia against India and hinted that pace reserves may be needed for the summer.
Green’s season-ending back surgery has left Australian selectors with questions for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, beyond just who opens the batting alongside Usman Khawaja.
With Green to miss the entire series, and more, it is expected to have a knock-on effect on Australia’s aging pace attack, with an increased workload likely against India in the five-match series.
Australia skipper Pat Cummins has stated before that Australia were likely to rely heavily on Green and fellow allrounder Mitchell Marsh, particularly if India bat for lengthy periods.
Starc, Cummins and Josh Hazlewood will almost certainly start as the three quicks, but Scott Boland, Michael Neser and Sean Abbott all now loom as rotations.
“It will always change the dynamic when you take a genuine allrounder like a Cameron Green, or with England when you take a Ben Stokes, out,” Starc said. “When you have that genuine allrounder who has been part of a group for a while … you get into a bit of a routine of having that extra bowling option.
“I don’t know what the dynamic of that line-up is going to be, there is a lot of talk around that opening spot and Mitch [Marsh] bowling as well.
“It’s not completely foreign. We’ve had series in the past where we haven’t had an allrounder at all.
“We’ve had to take some of that workload, and Gaz [Nathan Lyon] has probably had to bowl a bit extra as well.”
Starc will begin his season in the Sheffield Shield competition against Victoria on Sunday, with Steve Smith and Nathan Lyon also playing.
Hazlewood will play in the Blues’ following match against Queensland, with Starc to be rested.
Australia play five Tests in seven weeks against India, with the longest gap being a 10-day break between the series opener in Perth and second Test in Adelaide.
Starc stated Australia had always taken an extended-squad approach, with more factors coming into whether the first-choice group’s workloads were managed.
“That’s been the mindset for a number of years now, with overseas tour or a home series and the mentality of how gruelling a summer or series can be,” Starc said. “It’s been spoken about, if you have four or five Tests that go four days, the extra day between games [can be important].
“There is obviously a big gap between the first and second Test and the third and fourth Test. That may play a part as well.
“We don’t know what wickets we’ll get, we don’t know how successful or unsuccessful we will be.”
Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood and Lyon played uninterrupted in the previous four-match Border-Gavaskar series at home in 2020-21. They repeated that herculean effort in the five-Test home summer last season.
“There are too many factors to sit here at the start and say this is what is going to happen,” Starc said. “But there are certainly times where you feel the grind of five Tests.”
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