While Starc grabbed 5/46 to pull off a 15-run win against West Indies in a tense World Cup match to help Australia notch up their second win in WC 2019 on Thursday, India got off to a winning start against ‘Steyn-less’ South Africa.
Acknowledging the threat from in-form India skipper Virat Kohli and centurion from last game Rohit Sharma, Starc said that his squad need to have a chat about them as a bowling group.
“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 that’s our strengths and where we want to bowl to the conditions, as well,” Starc said.
“Look, it’s different conditions again. We’re playing at The Oval. 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.
“We go to The Oval tomorrow. I don’t think we’ll be at the ground but we’ll be there the day before 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.”
Talking about the exciting match against West Indies, Starc expressed how important it was for him to get Chris Gayle out during his early spell.
“I’ve had some good battles with Chris over the years, and he’s obviously a major weapon for them, and we just saw a little glimpse of it today, how strong he can be when he strikes that ball. He’s so strong, and I guess he finds the gap hitting over the top, doesn’t he? Yeah, he’s a huge weapon for them, and we knew that going into this contest that they’re going to have a few really big strikers and lots of boundaries, which he’s one of. Yeah, but we were very fortunate to get him early enough to put them on the back foot again with the new ball,” Starc said.