{"id":248579,"date":"2022-11-04T11:34:28","date_gmt":"2022-11-04T12:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=248579"},"modified":"2022-11-04T12:58:23","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T12:58:23","slug":"australia-slammed-over-bizarre-starc-axing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=248579","title":{"rendered":"Australia slammed over 'bizarre' Starc axing"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\ufeffustralia's decision to drop Mitchell Starc<\/a> for a crucial group stage match against Afghanistan has come under fire as its World Cup hopes hinge on Sri Lanka beating England on Saturday night. <\/p>\n

The reigning T20 World Cup<\/a> champions came into the clash against Afghanistan needing a massive win to put the pressure on England, but only managed to eke out a four-run win over the cricketing minnows<\/a>. <\/p>\n

There were eyebrows raised at the toss when Starc was omitted for Kane Richardson, one of three changes Australia made for the match. Steve Smith and Cameron Green came in for Aaron Finch and Tim David and both were dismissed for single figures.<\/p>\n

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The absence of Starc proved especially costly in the Afghanistan run chase as Rashid Khan teed off against Richardson<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Playing in the familiar confines of Adelaide Oval, where he has plied his trade for the Adelaide Strikers in the BBL over the last few summers, Khan hammered an unbeaten 48 off just 23 deliveries, bringing Afghanistan within one stroke of the greatest win in its cricket history.<\/p>\n

Despite picking up the first wicket of the Afghanistan run chase, Richardson proved to be expensive, going for 48 runs in his four-over spell, and the decision to include him in place of Starc was highly contentious.<\/p>\n

"(Starc) has got to be injured," former Australian captain Michael Clarke said on commentary.<\/p>\n

"There's absolutely no way you can leave him out of tonight's game.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/juniorwaugh349\/status\/1588453990341414912<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/ScottBaileyAAP\/status\/1588498832270426114<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/ajarrodkimber\/status\/1588495588148269056<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/DanielCherny\/status\/1588442948492226560<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/StuartBroad8\/status\/1588457379259387904<\/a><\/p>\n

"If anyone's going to rip through Afghanistan's batting, it's Mitchell Starc. I don't get it."\ufeff<\/p>\n

Starc was dropped despite being one of Australia's form pacemen in the World Cup, with the under-fire Pat Cummins retaining his spot in the line-up. Cummins enjoyed a strong outing against Afghanistan, conceding just 22 runs off his four overs.<\/p>\n

\ufeffGlenn Maxwell was named the Player of the Match for an unbeaten 54 off just 32 deliveries, with the knock helping Australia post a score of 168. <\/p>\n

The result means that Australia needs England to lose its final group stage match against Sri Lanka on Saturday to qualify for the semi-finals. <\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/em>For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by <\/strong><\/em>clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\ufeffustralia's decision to drop Mitchell Starc for a crucial group stage match against Afghanistan has come under fire as its World Cup hopes hinge on […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248579"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=248579"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248581,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248579\/revisions\/248581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=248579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=248579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=248579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}