Australia speedster Mitchell Starc is no longer a part of the India vs Australia Test series, after being ruled out ahead of the third Test with a foot injury. But that hasn't stopped him from taking part in a war of words between India and Australia players, as he said he wants to strike India spinner R Ashwin's helmet with a bouncer.
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One understands why Starc wants to hit Ashwin on his head with the red cherry. Starc looked a quality bowler for Australia in the first two Test matches, and the player was also involved in some heated action. The left-arm pacer had bowled a bouncer in the second innings of the Bengaluru Test to India opener Abhinav Mukund, and he top edged the ball for a six.
Starc walked up to the batsman, stared at him, and did a head-tapping gesture with his index finger as if to suggest, the next ball will hit your head. Ashwin, who was inside the dressing room when the incident took shape, seems to have not forgotten it when he was bowling to Starc.
Ashwin dismissed the left-hander for a single run, and decided to give him a send-off, by doing the same as what Starc had done to Mukund earlier. Ashwin, in an even more exaggerated manner, tapped his head, when Starc was heading back to the dressing room, also due to the fact that he had hit the Australian on the helmet earlier in the series.
Starc is waiting for Team India to visit Australia for the next tour, to gain some "revenge".
"I look forward to bowling to Ashwin in Australia. (I might) take his advice and hit him on the badge. (The on-field banter has) probably come a lot more from their side than ours. There was a lot made of it before the series and there was so much hype before the series. I think we've just gone about the cricket that we have done for a long period of time now," CA's official website quoted Starc as saying.
