'Keeping It Simple': Mitchell Starc's Game Plan For The T20 World Cup

Australian pace bowler Mitchell Starc has said that his strategy in the current edition of the ICC T20 World Cup in the UAE and Oman would be to "keep it simple" and not bowl "24 different types of slow balls" like others of his breed do.

Australia begin their 'Super 12' campaign in the T20 World Cup against South African on October 23 and the Aaron Finch-led side would be hoping to break the jinx of not lifting the trophy so far since the tournament's inaugural edition in 2007.

"I'm going stick to my strengths of the death (overs bowling) and not worry too much about what others are doing," said Starc, who played his last T20 World Cup in 2014 but missed out on the 2016 edition due to an injury.

It will be after a gap of more than seven years that the Australian quick bowler will be playing a T20 World Cup game, though he did play two ODI World Cups -- 2015 and 2019 -- in which he emerged as the joint-highest and highest wicket-taker respectively.

But Starc said that playing the T20 World Cup won't alter his game plan much as he likes the shorter formats more than Test cricket. "I guess the white-ball formats are probably the ones that I've played the most consistently in comparison to Test cricket, or felt more at home for a longer period of time than in the red-ball game. One of the things I take from all my cricket, across the three formats, is trying to keep my game plan and my role pretty simple," Starc told espncricinfo.com.

The Australian pace bowler says that his role of trying to take a couple of wickets with the new ball in power-play and then returning at the death to strike a few more blows will remain the same.

"Certainly my role in white-ball cricket hasn't changed a hell of a lot over the last 10 years and I think having that clarity there helps me keep it simple and know what I need to do for the team to get us in some really good positions.

"I've always tried to keep my cricket simple and I'm not someone who comes out with 24 different types of slow balls, certainly for T20 cricket. I've got a bit of speed on my side and focus on obviously my death bowling as well so I think that's key for me, focus on doing a few things really well rather than doing a lot of things okay.

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"I like to try and stick to what I can do really well. That could be different for any number of bowlers. Josh (Hazlewood) and Pat (Cummins) probably see it different to the way I see it. For me, I'm going to stick to my strengths at the death and not worry too much about what other guys are doing at that stage of the game," he concluded.