'I’m happy to live with whatever comes': Starc backs IPL 2025 exit due to Indo-Pak tensions despite future repercussions

New Delhi, June 6 Australia’s fast-bowling spearhead Mitchell Starc said he was comfortable with his decision to leave IPL 2025, when it was paused for a week following growing cross-border tensions between India and Pakistan.

Starc had picked 14 wickets in 11 games for Delhi Capitals in IPL 2025, before the competition paused. After that, he and fellow Australia player Jake Fraser-McGurk, who came to New Delhi along with other DC and Punjab Kings players, as well as other important stakeholders, via a bus and train trip from Dharamshala. Subsequently, Starc didn’t come back for the remainder of IPL 2025, and DC failed to enter the playoffs.

“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 prior to coming over here. 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. There was a little bit of that to my decision around the Champions Trophy (in Pakistan). And then once the tournament was delayed you start to think about guys’ preparation for the Test match.

“Things were handled differently for different players and different teams, the guys up in Dharamsala, the Punjab guys were part of that, 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,” Starc was quoted as saying by The Sydney Morning Herald on Friday.

He also noted that not choosing to return back to IPL 2025 was down to extraordinary circumstances. “I’m still heavily committed to the Delhi group, and I’m not someone that’s gone into tournaments and pulled out after being picked up in an auction or whatever that looks like.

“These are different circumstances. It was more a question of not having enough information leading into making a decision (about) things of that degree. I had a discussion back home then came to a decision, and whatever comes from that I’m comfortable with that and we move forward,” he added.

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