Starc remains on outer in Ashes

CRICKET: It’s as if those two Tests against Sri Lanka in the home summer never happened.

Australia smashed an understrength touring outfit to win both games, comprehensively.

But the outstanding performers have been mostly jettisoned for the Ashes, either not in the squad or not playing.

Century-makers Joe Burns and Kurtis Patterson are not in England, while Mitch Starc, who took 10 wickets in a manof-the-match performance in the second Test in Canberra, can’t crack the team.

Starc, who has 211 Test wickets and has played 51 Tests, missed the first two Ashes matches, and will most likely miss the third at Leeds too with confirmation James Pattinson, who has been rested for Lord’s, will come back in.

While Tim Paine said before the second Test that they’re locked in to having certain combinations as part of the plan to use bowlers on a conditions-based strategy, Starc and Pattinson don’t play in the same team. So where does that leave the left-armer, so constant a presence in the Test team over recent years that there were pockets of outrage when he was left out of the opening match at Edgbaston?

Australia’s emphatic win, albeit on the back of big runs from Steve Smith, was a tick for selectors, who also left out Josh Hazlewood.

The outraged should know that Starc was not really even in the selection discussion for the first Test, and with good reason.

No one suggested Starc won’t play a Test during the Ashes. But he’s already fifth in the fast bowler’s line and they only pick three a game.