AUS vs AFG: Australia Assistant Coach Daniel Vettori Reveals Why Mitchell Starc Was Dropped From Playing XI vs Afghanistan

Australia National Cricket Team assistant coach Daniel Vettori has revealed the real reason behind Mitchell Starc’s non-selection in the playing XI for the game against Afghanistan, asserting that “it was a tactical decision.”

Australia National Cricket Team made three big changes to their playing XI in their final Super 12 game against Afghanistan National Cricket Team at the Adelaide Oval on Friday, November 4. Skipper Aaron Finch and explosive batter Tim David, who were injured, were replaced by Cameron Green and Steve Smith while Kane Richardson came into the playing XI for Mitchell Starc.

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The exclusion of Mitchell Starc from the playing XI came as a massive surprise to many and several former Australian cricketers criticised team management’s decision to leave Starc out of the playing XI for the must-win encounter.

After the Australia-Afghanistan clash where the Matthew Wade-led side won by 4 runs, Australia’s assistant coach Daniel Vettori said:

“It was a tactical decision to leave out Starc. We brought in Kane to play the role he executed tonight at the back end of the Power-play, looking at the death overs where Kane has been exceptional in the past. We were looking to use Josh Hazlewood at the start and implement a plan around him and Pat [Cummins] being effective with the new ball and pushing Mitch into a role where he’s competing with Kane Richardson, especially at the death where everyone thought Kane excels.”

It was more around the effectiveness of Hazlewood and Cummins at the top – Daniel Vettori

Vettori further said that they wanted to use Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins as wicket-takers with the new ball and Kane Richardson as the death-overs specialist.

“It was more around the effectiveness of Hazlewood and Cummins at the top and their ability to take the new ball and be wicket-takers, and therefore that pushed Starcy into a different role, and he obviously came up against Kane Richardson,” he said.

He further lauded Richardson and said that the pacer has been highly impactful with the ball at death in T20s.

“It was thought among the hierarchy that Kane is exceptional at the death and we’ll utilise him there as opposed to Mitch. Players can [be flexible], particularly in their home country where you have a bigger sample size; you’ve seen Kane in the Big Bash and internationals and understand how effective he can be in this format.

“I think we’ll reflect on that and Kane would say he probably missed a couple at the backend of two overs. But apart from that, the majority of his spell was what we expected. So if that had been tidied up he would have had a great day,” he added.

Also Read: AUS vs AFG: “Really Surprise To Me” – Tom Moody On Mitchell Starc’s Exclusion From Playing XI vs Afghanistan In T20 World Cup 2022