Starc threat looms large as India gear up for their World Cup opener

Full, quick and darting in devilishly from the left-arm angle. For right-handed batters at the start of an innings, this mode of attack is bound to challenge and ask questions. For India's right-handed batters, this mode of attack has not just challenged but been a persistent source of heartache in recent years. 

Cast your mind back to Mohammad Amir running through the Indian top order in the 2017 Champions Trophy final? Or when Trent Boult probed and persisted with his swing and skill in the 2019 World Cup semi-final? Recall the number of times that Shaheen Afridi has seemingly had the Indian batters at his mercy?

On Sunday, in India's World Cup opener against Australia at Chepauk, it will be Mitchell Starc's turn to try and torment. Like the illustrious names mentioned above, Starc has also had his moments against India's batting line-up in white-ball cricket. Fresh in his memory will be the one-day series in India in March, where he finished as the highest wicket-taker with eight scalps in three games. Damage was inflicted in the first two games, Starc taking three in the opener in Mumbai and a fifer in the second game in Visakhapatnam that contributed to India getting skittled for 117.

Glance through his wickets from the series and the threat that lurks is clear. It's the left-arm pacer's trademark, pitching the ball up, swinging it back into the right-hander, late, very late, and at sharp pace. It breached Suryakumar Yadav's defence twice in the series and accounted for Virat Kohli and KL Rahul once each.

What the Indian batters perhaps need to caution against is their urge to whip these balls square of the wicket on the leg side. The work of the wrists may be an inherent strength of theirs, but the temptation must be resisted at least when the ball is new, for the risk of playing around the front pad to be trapped leg-before is high.

And the moment you begin expecting the inswinger, you are in for trouble too. Because Starc has the skill and subtlety to make the ball hold its line or go away, bringing the outside edge into play. In that ODI series for instance, Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill were caught playing away from the body to balls that left the right-hander. Starc is also capable of hatching an elaborate set up and playing a cat-and-mouse game. Away, away, away and then the sucker punch.

Against India's predominantly right-handed batting line-up, Starc will look to immediately hit that probing channel just outside off-stump. While he conceded 67 runs without a wicket in his ten overs when Australia played in Chennai in March -- the only time that the Indian batters had the upper hand in that series – the intermittent drizzle in the lead-up to this game may help Starc find movement. As far as left-arm pacers at this venue go, a highlight from the past decade is Junaid Khan's four-wicket burst in his opening spell in an ODI against India in 2012, but that was a day game in December that the Pakistan left-armer made the most of.

While Starc has just recently returned from a groin injury, his hat-trick against Netherlands in a warm-up game last Saturday suggests he's in wicket-taking form. Once the light rain cleared here on Friday, Starc had a 40-minute bowling session alongside skipper Pat Cummins. He began by bowling off a few paces before going full tilt at Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith.

In India's line-up, Sharma, Kohli and Rahul have the maximum experience against Starc, averaging well over 40 in this match-up. While Sharma has been dismissed thrice in 11 innings and Rahul twice in nine innings, Kohli has fallen just once. Not all that impressive though is their record in the first ten overs against left-armers. Sharma averages 36.7 and has been dismissed 21 times in 95 innings; Kohli has perished 13 times in 67 innings for an average of 32.1 and Rahul averages 25.3 with three dismissals in 18 innings.

For Sharma, Kohli and the other Indian batters, there will certainly be runs on offer on Sunday. As long as they don't succumb to the balls that are full, quick and darting in devilishly.