• Source:JND
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IPL 2025: Star pacer Mitchell Starc has reckoned that he was happy with the decision he made not to come back to India to play in IPL 2025 where he represented Delhi Capitals after the season got suspended owing to military tensions between India and Pakistan. He revealed that he was satisfied with his decision to stay back in Australia after the season restarted.

Starc was seen in action last month during their IPL 2025 clash against Punjab Kings, which was abandoned abruptly in Dharamshala owing to a blackout as there were speculations that the Indian Army was stopping the Pakistani drones in the nearby area. This escalation resulted after the Indian Armed forces carried out a successful Operation Sindoor that resulted in IPL 2025 getting suspended after that, both the players and the support staff were taken to New Delhi.

Starc's wife Alyssa Healy and the family then flew back to Sydney after the suspension.

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And then when the season restarted on May 17, Mitchell Starc was one of the DC players to have pulled out, and apart from him Jake Fraser-McGurk also did the same. The veteran fast bowler had finally opened up on his decision and revealed that he made this decision owing to safety concerns and also he didn't want to change his plans of preparing for the WTC finals against South Africa, which would be held next week.

“I’m comfortable with my decision and how I felt about the whole situation and how it was handled. That’s why I made my decision post-that, and my focus changed to red-ball cricket for about a week before coming over here," Starc was quoted as saying to the Age. The DC fast bowler also said that he was ready to face the repercussions of the decision he made if the Delhi-based franchise doesn't retain him or if he is banned from the tournament next year.

“Time will tell with repercussions or how it looks with guys that didn’t return. But I’ve had my questions and concerns leading into that game, and obviously, we saw what happened, which played a part in my decision. Things were handled differently for different players and different teams, the guys up in Dharamsala, the Punjab guys were part of that" he added.

“And while both teams had similar experiences up there, all those guys returned for Punjab, and Jake [Fraser-McGurk] and I chose not to. So it was a very individual decision, and I’m happy to live with whatever comes of that" he concluded.

Mitchell Starc was one of DC's star players this year as he had taken 14 wickets after playing in 11 matches and also played a huge role during the powerplay and at death overs. His pulling out did leave a huge gap in DC as they also made a group stage exit.