Australia set to risk Starc in Hobart Test
Snubbing injury concerns after a hectic Perth Test, Australia are set to gamble on Mitchell Starc's fitness for the second Test in Hobart starting on Saturday. The Australia pacer had missed six weeks of cricket after a shin injury and made a return to the squad with the wound slightly open.
"If we were going to do that [rest Starc], I wouldn't have thought he would've bowled today," Darren Lehmann, Australia's coach, said on Thursday (November 10). "You're speaking to the bowler first and foremost as well, if the player's uncomfortable they'll tell us, tell the medical staff first and then the selectors. That's how open we are. Both players were really comfortable getting through the Test match, obviously that didn't happen. That's not an ideal scenario but we're all happy to take that risk.
"We make the final call at the end when we're selecting them, but obviously we take all the information into account for that. We've just got to make sure we do the best we can. We just try to pick the best side each and every time."
Starc had played the first Test despite having only two weeks of bowling behind him amidst much criticism. However, Lehmann went on to defend the move. "We need Australia to win though, that's first and foremost and we don't get the chance to have a pre-season. So we've got to find one somewhere, wherever we get it. State medical staff and coaches are great, and they understand."
There was a similar - if not as discussed - fitness cloud over Peter Siddle ahead of the first Test at Perth, and the 31-year bowler now has been retracted from the second Test after aggravating his back stress fracture. David Beakley, Australia's physio, admitted that Australia "had two fast bowlers going into that [Perth] Test who were underdone," and described Starc's recovery from the freak leg injury as "amazing".
He also talked about fast bowling management - an issue highly debated Down Under of late. "The notion that bowling workload monitoring is about restricting bowlers from bowling is certainly not the case from our perspective," he said. "It's about building up their loads in a smart way so they're adequately prepared for what they're going to face in the match. That's the basis behind it.
"How we do that is usually based around some of the evidence that's come out of research that bowlers are far more likely to get injured through workload spikes. If you double your workload from one week to the next, you're far more likely to get injured the following week. We know on average they're going to bowl about 120 balls an innings, about 240 balls a Test match. We work back from that in the preceding weeks to build them up so they've got that amount of workload under their belts so they don't spike too much in a Test.
"The body responds to a dose of exercise by increasing the resilience to the structures that are going to be put under load. Whether that's bone, soft tissues, tendon, ligaments, whatever. This is a process that takes weeks, months or years in some cases to develop. It's not something where you can say bowl this week so you're hardened next week for a Shield match, it doesn't work like that. It takes a minimum of six weeks for that hardening to occur. So we work back through what the bowler's achieved over the previous four weeks to see what will adequately prepare them for the following week."
"If we were going to do that [rest Starc], I wouldn't have thought he would've bowled today," Darren Lehmann, Australia's coach, said on Thursday (November 10). "You're speaking to the bowler first and foremost as well, if the player's uncomfortable they'll tell us, tell the medical staff first and then the selectors. That's how open we are. Both players were really comfortable getting through the Test match, obviously that didn't happen. That's not an ideal scenario but we're all happy to take that risk.
"We make the final call at the end when we're selecting them, but obviously we take all the information into account for that. We've just got to make sure we do the best we can. We just try to pick the best side each and every time."
Starc had played the first Test despite having only two weeks of bowling behind him amidst much criticism. However, Lehmann went on to defend the move. "We need Australia to win though, that's first and foremost and we don't get the chance to have a pre-season. So we've got to find one somewhere, wherever we get it. State medical staff and coaches are great, and they understand."
There was a similar - if not as discussed - fitness cloud over Peter Siddle ahead of the first Test at Perth, and the 31-year bowler now has been retracted from the second Test after aggravating his back stress fracture. David Beakley, Australia's physio, admitted that Australia "had two fast bowlers going into that [Perth] Test who were underdone," and described Starc's recovery from the freak leg injury as "amazing".
He also talked about fast bowling management - an issue highly debated Down Under of late. "The notion that bowling workload monitoring is about restricting bowlers from bowling is certainly not the case from our perspective," he said. "It's about building up their loads in a smart way so they're adequately prepared for what they're going to face in the match. That's the basis behind it.
"How we do that is usually based around some of the evidence that's come out of research that bowlers are far more likely to get injured through workload spikes. If you double your workload from one week to the next, you're far more likely to get injured the following week. We know on average they're going to bowl about 120 balls an innings, about 240 balls a Test match. We work back from that in the preceding weeks to build them up so they've got that amount of workload under their belts so they don't spike too much in a Test.
"The body responds to a dose of exercise by increasing the resilience to the structures that are going to be put under load. Whether that's bone, soft tissues, tendon, ligaments, whatever. This is a process that takes weeks, months or years in some cases to develop. It's not something where you can say bowl this week so you're hardened next week for a Shield match, it doesn't work like that. It takes a minimum of six weeks for that hardening to occur. So we work back through what the bowler's achieved over the previous four weeks to see what will adequately prepare them for the following week."
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