Australia’s Ashes attack yet to be decided as Andrew McDonald explains surprise Mitchell Starc move

After an afternoon and evening of celebrations in London on Sunday following their first WTC title, the Australians were due to bus to Birmingham on Monday for the Ashes opener at Edgbaston, beginning on Friday.

With David Warner’s first innings 43 shoring up his place in Australia’s XI for the start of the Ashes, the major selection puzzle involves which two of Josh Hazlewood, Scott Boland and Starc will accompany Pat Cummins in Australia’s three-pronged pace attack.

Hazlewood bowled at The Oval on Sunday with Australia reiterating that the paceman is fully fit for the start of the series after missing the WTC final following a minor side injury.

It leaves the Aussies staring at a selection squeeze. Boland, once the clear understudy to Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood, completed a stellar WTC cycle by taking 5-105 in the decider against India to be the best of Australia’s pace bowlers.

Starc, though not without his moments for the match, took 4-148 but also went at more than five runs per over in both Indian innings, compared to Boland, who went at less than three an over across the two digs.

The left-hander also made 41 in the second innings to continue his strong record with the bat in the UK.

Having almost always opened the bowling for Australia across his Test career, Starc was demoted to first-change behind Boland and Cummins in the second innings.

However McDonald advised not to read much into that call when determining whether Starc would play at Edgbaston, suggesting that the Aussies believed the lefty would be better-served bowling later in the innings because of the vagaries of the Dukes ball.

“Think there’s a little bit of a theory, whether it’s true or not, that the ball once the lacquer goes off starts to swing a bit,” McDonald said.

“We didn’t see much swing here. That was basically the decision. We thought it may swing as it gets a bit older, that eight-over mark. Nothing to read into that. Was a theory around what the ball does, don’t think we saw that come to fruition here but it may over the next five Tests, who knows?”

However, in any case, Starc’s relative profligacy could be tested against an England side that has revolutionised the approach to Test batting. McDonald said he was prepared for the hosts to play an aggressive game.

“Most of our bowlers went at above what they’d usually go and we’ve just got to get our heads around that the tempo will be slightly different. We’re a team that usually goes at that high two runs per over, here we’ve got to get our heads around the fact that we could go at four runs an over. India showed good intent at certain times and the game went at high threes, four runs per over.

“Mitch went at a bit more than that and he generally goes at a fraction more than the other bowlers, and they complement each other really, really well. His wicket-taking ability is second to none. We’ve got to weigh all that up when we make decisions. But it’s not a concern because we know what we’re in for in the summer is slightly higher RPO (runs per over) and that’s because of the grounds and the surfaces.”

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McDonald added that selectors, of which he is one alongside George Bailey and Tony Dodemaide, would wait to see how the bowlers pulled up from the final before deciding on which of the pacemen would play in Birmingham.

“There’s always a balance of an attack,” McDonald said.

“It’s no different to any team you pick at any point in time. We value Mitch and what he’s been able to do but we also value Scott and Josh and Patty is clearly an automatic pick being the captain and then you’ve got Nathan Lyon and Cameron Green in and around that. We feel as though we’ve got really good coverage and we’ve got some people here playing county cricket if anything should go wrong.”