Australia’s left-arm fast bowler Mitchell Starc made it clear on Monday that he has no plans to play in the next World Cup, although he will not give up ODI cricket just yet. The old man, who will be 37 by the time of the next World Cup in South Africa, was part of Australia’s ODI triumph in 2015 and T20 2021. But this time he was below par, taking 10 wickets at an average of 43.90.

“I will try to continue playing after this, but I have no doubt that I will fail at the next World Cup. I have no vision for it. Four years is a long (time),” he told reporters at the team hotel.

Australia have limited ODI commitments next year with a series against the West Indies in February and not until September when they tour England.

Starc said Test cricket will be his first priority.

“I have always said that Test cricket is the top of the tree for me and I will give up the rest before I give up Test cricket. For me (the World Cup semi-final) is just another one-day game for Australia, it is not the end of the journey in one-day cricket for me,” he added. .

Starc blamed his poor performance in this World Cup on “flat wickets” and said: “I was definitely not at the level I wanted to be at … or not at the same level as in the last two World Cups, but now the opportunity at the pointy end to strike again,” he said.

“Certainly you bowl at certain wickets first, the new ball with two outsiders was almost the hardest to bowl in my opinion. As the game goes on you get some understanding of the wicket… it’s not a sad story, it’s the nature of one-day cricket.

“You’ve got two brand new balls on flat wickets, that’s the nature of the World Cup, if you look at runs scored or centuries for sure, and against five wickets scored, the ratios are massively skewed. The bowlers simply have to find a way.”

The old man, who has struggled since the Ashes and was rested for Australia’s final World Cup match against Bangladesh, was seen training with his team-mates during Monday’s qualifying session ahead of Thursday’s semi-final.

“I didn’t have much of a say in the decision (about the rest). I brought a few things from the Ashes and it was an opportunity to give them an extra chance (to recover) before the semi-final.”

He went on to insist that it would be good to play in Thursday’s semi-final against South Africa in Kolkata.

“If I only played when I was 100 percent, I probably would have played 10 games,” he said. “All the bowlers in the world do things, we just don’t have to talk about it like the batsmen do.”

Excited to play in front of a packed Eden crowd, he said: “Whether it’s a hen’s skin or not, it’s just another game… I’ve played a lot of one-day cricket… (playing in big matches) is not something, which is really talked about.

“This group is very settled and fairly experienced with some younger, less experienced guys who are really catching on nicely,” he signed off.