Australia's pace spearhead Mitchell Starc has stated that he will not jeopardise his chances of playing in the two Tests by coming out prematurely from the index finger injury and risk aggravating it in the three remaining ODIs against hosts Sri Lanka.
The five-match ODI series is keenly poised with the Aaron Finch-led Australia and Sri Lanka having won one game each.Starc had sliced open his left index finger on his shoe spike during the T20I opener against Sri Lanka last week, and while he is still holding out hope of playing an ODI or two, he doesn't want to compromise his chances of playing in Tests, which follow the white-ball series.
Starc had the stitches removed on Thursday, but his return to play the ODIs depends on how quickly the finger recovers from here on."I'm still holding onto hope that I will," Starc was quoted as saying by thewest.com.au about his chances of featuring in the ODI series.
"I had the stitches out (on Thursday). There's still a fair bit of glue still in the wound. That will start to dissolve a bit more in the next couple of days. Once we get to Colombo we'll have a look at it again and see where it's at.
"I'm still training. It's just a matter of where the wound is at, and obviously with one eye on the Test series as well and not compromising that."Starc said it was a queer feeling to be fully fit yet unable to play in the series.
"I feel really good with the ball in hand. I've had to bowl at training with the tape on, and it's purely that I can't do that in the fixture due to the ICC rules which is why I'm not playing. If it's game three, four, or five (that I play), I'm not sure yet. We're just making sure we're not compromising the Test series."