Several IPL franchises are sweating over the availability of their overseas stars for the upcoming season who may end up missing the tournament partially or in its entirety due to various reasons. Mitchell
Starc, Delhi Capitals’ pace spearhead, is also expected to miss the initial stage with Cricket Australia (CA) reportedly monitoring his workload.
Hemang Badani, DC head coach, admits that they have no news over Starc’s availability and are still awaiting a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from CA.
“We are waiting for an NOC from Cricket Australia, once we get that, then only we can say anything about Starc’s availability,” Badani told reporters in New Delhi on Monday.
DC Director Of Cricket Venugopal Rao though added that Starc’s fitness remains a concern.
“Starc will come, we just waiting for the NOC because his fitness is the concern. We are just waiting for it,” he said.
The 36-year-old Starc was DC’s second-highest wicket-taker last season with 14 wickets from 11 games and was retained by the franchise after being signed for Rs 11.75 crore at the IPL 2025 mega auction.
DC will open their IPL 2026 campaign when they face Lucknow Super Giants at the Ekana Cricket Stadium on April 1.
Starc is one of the several Aussie stars who are uncertain for the upcoming IPL that starts from March 28, when defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru host Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Starc’s Australia teammates Josh Hazlewood (RCB) and Pat Cummins (SRH) will also miss the initial few matches for their respective franchises. Cummins also captains SRH and in his absence Ishan Kishan will lead the franchise.
Jack Edwards (SRH) and Nathan Ellis (Chennai Super Kings) are already set to miss the entire season due to injuries.
Sunil Gavaskar was unhappy with the growing list of Aussies missing IPL, claiming overseas players are taking advantage of Indian hospitality.
“The owners of the franchises go out of their way to accommodate their players, often paying for families to come and spend time with the players at no cost to the millionaire players, mind you. It’s the Indian way and hospitality, which often is misunderstood as a right by some and who then try and take advantage of the situation,” he wrote in his column for Sportstar.
