"My pace didn't drop": Aussie seamer provides crucial fitness update on Day 4 of BGT 2024-25 4th Test

Australia veteran seamer Mitchell Starc assured that he was in good shape to bowl in the final innings after struggling with a niggle on Day 3 of the Boxing Day Test against India at the MCG. The left-arm pacer was seen clutching his sides while bowling in the first innings as the hosts had to put in a mammoth shift of 120 overs.

With Australia lacking a certified fifth bowler amid Cameron Green's absence, and Mitchell Marsh's injury concerns, the pressure was on Australia's frontline quartet. They had already lost Josh Hazlewood for the remainder of the series due to injury, leaving Starc the task of bowling 25 overs without a wicket to his name.

Fellow pacer Scott Boland had mentioned at the end of Day 3 that Starc's niggle is unlikely to keep him out for too long.

"He’s okay. He just had a bit of a niggle somewhere in his back or rib, I don’t know, somewhere back there, but he came out after the break and was bowling 140km/h, so I think he’s going to be fine,” Boland said in the press conference after Day 3 in Melbourne (via Hindustan Times).

While Starc did not bowl in the first session of Day 4 to wrap up India's stint with the bat, he had mentioned ahead of the day's play that he was fully fit.

“All good ... my pace didn’t drop. I’m ready to go today, I’m not sure anyone really understand it unless they’ve had to do it. It is what it is, it’s Test cricket, it’s a five-Test series, some close matches back-to-back, a few long days. Obviously we were a bowler down (in) the last Test and it’s probably more the MCG of old. It’s going to be hard work, these last two days, but that’s Test cricket and that’s what we’re here for," Starc told SEN (via The West Australian)

Starc finished with figures of 25-2-86-0 while the rest of his core bowling partners finished with three wickets apiece. As he mentioned, there was no discernible evidence of the niggle affecting his bowling too much as he continued to bowl close to 140 kmph, which is his average speed anyway.

"We thought it might do more with the new ball" - Mitchell Starc

After dominating the Adelaide and the Brisbane Tests with the ball completely, the Australian bowlers did not have much of a say after the batters did their task to post a commanding first innings total.

The visitors had shot themselves in the foot with a late collapse on Day 2. Australia, however, had a hard day on the field on Day 3 as Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar frustrated the side with a mammoth partnership, and reduced Australia's lead considerably.

“We thought it might do more with the new ball, which it probably hasn’t. They batted quite well in that partnership. We bowled some really, really good stuff with no reward, so good old-fashioned Test cricket - a bit like the MCG of old," Starc added

“They were pretty disciplined. We bowled some really, really, really good spells. The scoreboard didn’t really go anywhere and they absorbed the pressure and accumulated along the way. They didn’t play any false shots and put a nice partnership together," he concluded

Starc's bowling task for Day 4 relies on how Australia proceeded with their second innings. At Lunch on Day 4, they are placed at 53-2, with the lead reading 158 runs.