Though Starc courageously answered his captain’s call to help bowl Australia to an innings and 182-run smash-up of South Africa,the paceman has tendon damage and cannot straighten his injured digit.
The injury,known as a mallet finger,requires the wearing of a splint for six weeks,leaving Starc in a race against the clock to be fit for the first Test starting on February 9 in Nagpur. Starc can still keep fit by simulating his action though would unlikely be able to bowl with a ball in his hand.
“From the scans the other day,the tendon’s basically gone from the top of the finger,so I can’t straighten it or any of that,” Starc said.
Such is Starc’s importance to the team’s fortunes in India,where speed through the air is considered vital,selectors would settle for him to be available for the latter part of the series. If they aimed for the third Test,Starc would have an extra three weeks to prepare.
“This stage I’m getting another scan in Sydney and seeing a finger specialist to work through all that,” Starc said. “Obviously,India is coming up,so we’ll see what timeframes are up after we work through those discussions next week.
“Hopefully,it fits in somewhere at the front end of the tour. Apart from the finger being out of action I can still train to some degree and bowl in creative ways to keep my bowling workloads up with the finger not impacted. That side of it will be fine,it’s just where the timeframe of the tendon comes into India.”