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Cheteshwar Pujara wants India to tire out Mitchell Starc and plunder runs in his old-ball spells.
Mitchell Starc starred for Australia with the ball, picking up six Indian wickets in Adelaide. (AP)
Cheteshwar Pujara wants India to carefully play out Mitchell Starc’s new ball bursts and look to steal more runs in his second and third spells with the older cherry in the fourth Test of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) in Melbourne. Pujara noted that the left-arm seamer tends to get tired and India needs to push him there with their attrition.
Starc is Australia’s joint-highest wicket-taker this series with 14 wickets at an average of 22.86. He struggled in the first Test in Perth but found his rhythm back with a six-wicket haul in the pink-ball Test in Adelaide, and backed that up with three more at the Gabba.
“He has taken most of his wickets in his first five overs, his first spell. We need to bat well in the first five overs and make him bowl the second and third spells because he gets tired,” Pujara said on Star Sports. “When Mitchell Starc was bowling to Bumrah and Akash Deep with the old ball, he wasn’t that effective. So, play the new ball properly,” he remarked.
Pujara admitted that India used to look at Starc’s overs as run-scoring opportunities in previous BGTs but the left-arm quick is in too good a rhythm this year to do that.
“He has been their best bowler thus far in this series,” Pujara said. “He has improved his bowling a lot in the last one to one-and-a-half years. If I talk about my personal experience, when he used to bowl in the last two series, we felt we could get runs. However, now it seems like when he comes to bowl, he will pick up wickets.”
“His accuracy has improved a lot. He is bowling very few loose deliveries. He is bowling at the stumps, hitting the good length spot consistently, and getting swing. He has become a different bowler. He is looking more dangerous than Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. So we will have to manage his bowling, especially with the new ball,” Pujara added.
Starc has 25 wickets in seven Tests at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, at an average of 30.16. The last time he played against India here, he bowled spells of 3/78 and 1/20.
