Champions Trophy 2025: Mitchell Starc responds on Team India’s “unfair advantage”

Australian pacer Mitchell Starc, who missed out on the recently concluded ICC Champions Trophy 2025 due to personal reasons, opened up about whether Team India really had an unfair advantage in the showpiece competition.

Though Starc felt that India had an advantage of playing at the same venue, there was a lot more to see than what meets the eye. The speedster has asserted that though all other cricketers have the privilege of playing T20 leagues across the world, Indian cricketers couldn’t do the same.

"I'm not sure it is an advantage per se because as cricketers we have got all the opportunities to play all franchises in the world, but the Indian guys can only play in the IPL. So, I don't think you can sit on that because you have got guys who play across five to six different franchise leagues a year So, even they are getting the exposure to white-ball cricket," Starc said on Fanatics TV.

Furthermore, Mitchell Starc has also stated his opinion on Varun Chakravarthy’s dominance in the eight-team affair. He added that he wasn’t surprised to see the mystery spinner doing well as the duo shared the dressing room in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the Kolkata Knight Riders franchise. Moreover, he stated that Varun is a huge talent and an interesting bowler.

"Not surprised that India won. I'll be honest here, I did not watch a single ball. I'm not sure I watched much of the Champions Trophy at all. Just bits and pieces of the Aussie games. I played with Chakaravarthy with KKR last season, he is a huge talent, an interesting bowler. Now whether they are the best white-ball team ever? The Indian fans will say yes, the Australian fans will probably say no," Starc added.

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