Pacer Mitchell Starc has expressed his unhappiness at not being included in Australia's playing XI for their match against Afghanistan in the T20 World Cup 2024.

One of Australia's best white-ball bowlers, Starc, was excluded from the playing XI for the pivotal Super Eights match at Kingston's Arnos Vale Stadium. Spinner Ashton Agar was selected based on conditions. Chasing a target of 148 in Kingstown, Australia lost the match by 21 runs.

Additionally, Starc was benched for Australia's 2022 T20 World Cup match against Afghanistan, which ended in a close four-run win at Adelaide Oval. After being selected ahead of Starc, fellow seamer Kane Richardson gave up 48 runs in his four overs.

Upon being questioned over his recent exclusion in the Willow Talk show, Starc said, “Two World Cups in a row. Just the match-up, they saw previous games on that ground in St Vincent with spin playing a part and obviously Ash and the left-armer enticing them to make a change.

“I think Ash bowled pretty well in the Powerplay. They probably played the spin quite well and batting first probably assessed the conditions a little bit better than we did, and had a couple of stumbles that in the end cost us the game. It was probably the fielding that cost us again that game. That meant we had to win against India and we fell short there as well.”