Stopped by injury when in career-best form and forced to miss a $1 million IPL payday, Mitchell Starc is back bowling pain-free for the first time in nine months.
Selected to return in the ODI tri-series in the Windies in June, Starc revealed on Thursday he was so frustrated at being sidelined by a foot fracture since November that he could barely watch his teammates in Australia's unsuccessful World T20 campaign in India.
But Australia's pace spearhead can finally see light at the end of the injury tunnel.
"I've been in the gym for close to three months, I've been bowling for three weeks, I'm still just progressing through my bowling," Starc said.
"I'm not quite yet off the full run, hopefully I'll bowl to a few batsmen soon. That will probably happen in May when we get together in Brisbane."
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
It means he misses the IPL starting next week, where he was due to earn $1.03 million with Royal Challengers Bangalore, having topped the world ODI bowling rankings in the wake of his World Cup-winning heroics early last year.
But Starc was relieved to be bowling without pain once more after carrying injuries last year and he has been working on some ways to bowl even better when he returns.
"I've had a chat to a few people about things I can improve on or work on in this time off, which is an ideal time to do it," Starc said.
"It's just about getting back to that consistency that I started to find when I broke down.
"I thought I was getting to that stage where everything was starting to click.
"It's a bit frustrating that I broke down then but there are good signs for the future if I can get back to that."
