Starc was the player of the match in the final. ©BCCI/IPL
Eighteen months ago, during a home T20 World Cup, Mitchell Starc found himself in a strange place: out of an Australian T20I XI to face Afghanistan in a must-win clash in Adelaide. The think-tank preferred Kane Richardson to him. The axe had appeared to be swinging fairly close to him even before that game in Australia's title defence with Starc operating as a change bowler and not handed the new ball - a quintessential sight in a white-ball game.
His returns in the format had been dipping but one of the foremost exponents of the limited-overs formats didn't take the treatment meted out to him quietly. Nor did he throw in the towel on the format. 'Strong opinions', it was revealed, were shared in a lengthy chat with chair of selectors George Bailey. While no other details from that conversation emerged, Starc mentioned that he retained ambition to continue playing T20 cricket for Australia with another World Cup not too far away.
Aspirations with the national team have been central to the Starc-IPL narrative. One of the premier white-ball fast bowlers of the generation stayed away from the premier T20 competition for nine seasons because the tournament coincided with his postseason down time. It was an opportunity to spend time with family, to rest and prepare the body for the workloads of the next season. This meant all of his appearances in the format since 2015 were at the international level and he admitted not playing the IPL may have hindered the development of his T20 game, but he was at peace with the terms of the trade-off.
Until now. The 2024 season of the IPL was going to be played in the leadup to the World Cup in the USA and the Caribbean, and it was the perfect opportunity to work towards a marquee tournament and see if the format had passed him or his white-ball skills by. At first it seemed like it. After being picked up for a record fee of INR 24.75 crores - one he had no control over - his first eight overs in the competition went for 100 runs. Then five wickets came at a more acceptable economy of 8.2 but it turned sour once more as the next 10 overs went for 148 runs. He'd played just two T20s in the 18 months preceding this reunion with the IPL and the format-rustiness showed.
But it wasn't that Starc no longer had the tools to succeed. He could still swing the ball at high pace, which as he demonstrated on the
