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Mitchell Starc, the most expensive pick in IPL history, has endured a challenging start to his 2024 campaign. Despite his hefty price tag of INR 24.75 crore, the Australian pacer has struggled to make an impact, with just seven wickets and an economy of 11.78 in his first eight outings. However, Starc bounced back with a stellar performance in Kolkata Knight Riders’ 24-run victory over Mumbai Indians, claiming 4 for 33.

Starc attributed his improved performance to the Impact Player rule, which allows teams to substitute a player during the match. “The Impact Player rule changes things a fair bit,” he explained. “Everyone gets to bat a lot deeper having a batting and a bowling XI. There’s a lot made of that rule throughout the tournament and there’s been a lot of high scores, which is the nature of the wickets and the grounds we play on here.”

Starc believes that the rule has contributed to the inflated bowling figures this season. “When you have batters and batting allrounders come in at Nos. 8 or 9, it’s a long batting line-up,” he said. “There’s no fear in the powerplay when all you have to do is to clear the infield and score runs.”

Despite his initial struggles, Starc remains confident in his abilities. “I haven’t changed too much,” he said. “It’s about assessing conditions after the first innings. We certainly spoke about it and the batters that came off throughout that first innings mentioned the wicket and the lengths that were the hardest to face. That created the bowling plans for us.”

Starc also praised the young fast bowlers at KKR, including Harshit Rana and Vaibhav Arora. “I am a bit more experienced and a bit older, at the same time I haven’t played a lot of T20 cricket,” he said. “[So it is about] working off each other in a way.”

With just one week separating the IPL from the T20 World Cup, Starc is not concerned about his workload. “It’s T20 cricket, it’s not as demanding as Test match cricket,” he said. “Physically it is not a problem and it’s fantastic lead-in to play here in the best T20 league in the world.”

Starc expects the T20 World Cup to provide a more balanced contest between bat and ball. “There’s no Impact Player rule [in international cricket], so whether that affects the scores is yet to be seen,” he said. “I think it probably will. People talk about the balance of the team when you can’t just bring someone in. Your allrounders come back into play. Captains have to think a bit tactically, too, when you have just 11 players.”