Mitchell Starc Breaks Silence and Reveals 'The Real Reason' on Champions Trophy 2025 Withdrawal

Mitchell Starc, a left-arm bowler for Australia, gave his explanation on Thursday for withdrawing from the current ICC Champions Trophy 2025, which is being held in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). When the two-time winners announced their final group of 15 players earlier this month, Starc was a conspicuous absence despite having been named in Australia's preliminary squad for the eight-team competition. At the time, Australia stated that they backed Starc's decision to withdraw from the competition for personal reasons.

Notably, Australia now has an inexperienced pace attack in the competition as a result of Starc's absence, along with that of fellow fast bowlers Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. The board and team management fully supported Cricket Australia's first claim that the bowler had withdrawn for personal reasons. Australia's bowling strength was severely weakened by his absence, as well as that of Cummins and Hazlewood, forcing them to rely on a less seasoned pace attack.

Mitchell Starc Drops Truth Bombs:

The seasoned fast has clarified his exclusion from the Australians' Champions Trophy campaign. Speaking on the Willow Talk podcast in Australia, Starc went into further detail about the subject. The left-armer stated that his primary motivation for skipping the Champions Trophy was to guarantee his availability for the June ICC World Test Championship Final match against South Africa in London.

He stated, "There's a few different reasons, some personal views, and had a bit of ankle pain through the Test series [against Sri Lanka]. So just get that one right, obviously, we've got the Test final coming up and a West Indies tour after that. There's some IPL cricket as well, but my main one top of my mind is that Test final so get my body right, play some cricket in the next couple of months and then be ready to go for the Test final."

With players like Spencer Johnson, Ben Dwarshuis, and Nathan Ellis playing well and the Australians opening their tournament with a thrilling victory against bitter rival England, Starc's absence at the Champions Trophy hasn't been missed yet.

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