Australia pacer Mitchell Starc has made it clear that he is not a great fan of the pre-seeding in the ongoing T20 World Cup in the West Indies and USA. Australia have progressed as ‘B2’ from their group despite winning all four matches and topping the table in group B. They have been slotted in Group 1 in the Super 8 round alongside India, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Interestingly, the seedings were defined by the ICC in every group even before the tournament started and had made it clear that the seedings won’t change irrespective of the teams’ position in the group stage. Accordingly, despite topping the group B, Australia remained B2 and moved to Group 1 for the Super 8 round. 

When Mitchell Starc was asked about the pre-seedings in the World Cup, the left-arm pacer wasn’t sure what to say but clarified that he wasn’t in favour of the same. “I think there’s a question to be asked about pre-seeding. I’m not sure I’m a fan of that,” Starc said. The discussion was around Australia getting a possible chance of knocking England out by deliberately ‘dragging out’ the game against Scotland. Josh Hazlewood’s similar comments had caused a stir over the last week or so but Starc accused the media of ‘blowing his comments out of proportion.’

“I think a throwaway line has been blown right out of proportion by you lot. You don’t stuff around with mother cricket and trying to worry about other results. We’re here to win games. It’s international cricket. England now are on the other side of the draw, so it really doesn’t make that much difference for the next three games. So yeah, I think that was blown right out of proportion by you guys,” Starc added.

Amidst all the talks and discussions around Hazlewood’s comments, Australia beat Scotland in a thrilling encounter chasing down 181 runs and eventually helped England qualify for the Super 8 round of the T20 World Cup.