Mitchell Starc Thrilled to Team up with India's Versatile Player in IPL: '...has proven himself in every role'

Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc has expressed his admiration for KL Rahul and is looking forward to teaming up with the talented India wicketkeeper-batter in the upcoming 2025 season of the Indian Premier League. The duo was picked up by the Delhi Capitals during the IPL auction held towards the end of last year. Starc is excited about the prospect of playing alongside Rahul and believes that their partnership will greatly benefit the team.

"KL Rahul is like Mr. Fix-it for India. He has opened the batting when asked to, batted at Number 6, kept wickets, fielded, batted in middle order — he has done just about everything, he has played vital roles, excited to play alongside him,” said Starc on the Fanatics TV YouTube channel.

While Rahul's seems to be out of contention at the moment in India's T20I setup and on the periphery of the Test team as well, he has been integral to them in ODI cricket. Rahul played a crucial role in the team's recent run to the 2025 Champions Trophy title, scoring 140 runs coming in at No.6 with a strike rate of 97.90. He was unbeaten in three of the five innings that he played, including the final in which he was not out on 34 runs off 33 balls. The innings proved crucial in pushing India over the line.

'Not sure India had an advantage in Champions Trophy'

A topic of discussion that was constant throughout the tournament was whether India had an advantage due to being the only team that didn't travel at all throughout the 2025 Champions Trophy. India played all their games from start to finish in Dubai after the BCCI stated that the Indian government has not cleared the team to travel to host nation Pakistan for the tournament. Starc stated that he is not too sure if India had a big advantage considering their players only play in the IPL while those from other teams can play in Dubai more frequently whenever they play T20 leagues in the UAE.

“Not sure Indians have an advantage. Because the rest of us have opportunities to play franchise cricket all around the world, but the Indian guys can only play in the IPL. Sure it’s the number 1 product (in franchise cricket). IPL’s top notch and for 8-10 weeks you have high-class cricket, you get games every few days as a player. But I don’t think you can sit on that. Because there are guys who play for four or five different franchise leagues a year, so they’re still getting exposure to white ball cricket," he said.

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