Australia need ‘little bit of game time’: Mitchell Starc after defeat in 2nd England T20I

Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc feels that Australia needs more game time after his side’s six-wicket loss against England in the second T20I at Southampton.

As a result of the defeat, Australia lost the three-match T20I series with the dead rubber set to be played on Tuesday.

“It`s not an excuse but coming off five months without cricket doesn`t help. You can`t really simulate international matches by having nets or a centre-wicket practice. And T20 cricket is such a short game – those little moments have really cost us in the long run. We`ve been a little bit off where we want to be and I think that comes from a little bit of game time,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Starc as saying.

Australia’s last international outing was against New Zealand at home in March. Australia won the first ODI of the three-match series by 71 runs at the Sydney Cricket Ground on March 13 while the rest of the series was cancelled amidst a surging number of coronavirus cases. So, the current series against England is Australia’s first international outing in almost six months.

England, on the other hand, have seen a lot of cricket at home this summer with the Test tour of West Indies, ODI series against Ireland which was followed by the recently-concluded Test and T20I series against Pakistan. It’s no wonder that England have looked more sure-footed than their counterparts in the ongoing series.

Before the commencement of the T20I series on September 4, Australia had played three T20s and one 50-over intra-squad games.

However, Starc argued that nothing can be compared to actual match practise which they desperately lack. The 30-year-old left-arm seamer further stated that it is more difficult to execute plans in T20Is because of its short duration.

The visitors had come close to victory in the first game, with a narrow two-run defeat, but they were swatted aside by the brilliance of Jos Buttler ( 77* off 54 balls; 4×8, 6×2) and the English bowlers on Sunday.

“Hopefully now we can fix that for the third game and then move on to the one-dayers, and show now [that] we`ve had that game time we can get those plans right and execute a bit better than we have in those first two T20s,” he added.

Starc, the top wicket-taker in both 2015 and 2019 World Cup’s, has bowled with great pace in the opening two matches against England but has wavered in his lines. The Australian bowling linchpin thinks that his side will likely perform better in the three-match ODI series as now they have match-practise behind them from the T20Is.