As Mitchell Starc left the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai with an Indian Premier League title and a player-of-the-final award, Australia grew a collective foot taller. To know that Starc still has what it takes to be a match winner in the shortest format is comforting for the nation and their fans after the left-armer’s rather disappointing performances in the home-and-away stage of the tournament.

Before the finals, Starc statistics weren’t appealing on the eye. 11.4 runs per over, 17.4 balls per wicket and 3.4 balls per boundary. Then, in Kolkata Knight Riders’ two finals matches against Sunrisers Hyderabad, the Starc of old was back.

In the Qualifier 1 (first versus second for a place in the final, loser gets second chance), Starc ripped through Sunrisers’ top order, including that of Australian teammate Travis Head with his second ball to leave them reeling at 4-39 after five overs. Three of those wickets were taken by Starc in a man-of-the-match performance that sealed Kolkata’s place in the final.

In the final, again Starc terrorised Sunrisers as the 34-year-old stamped his mark on the game during the first over. With a vintage piece of Starc outswing bowling, Abhishek Sharma’s stumps were glowing red after the ball cannoned into them in what can only be described as an unplayable delivery.

The Australian claimed another wicket during his first spell and finished the match with 2-14 from his three overs as the Knight Riders claimed their third IPL title, and first since 2014.

In the finals, Starc conceded 6.9 runs per over, took a wicket every 8.4 deliveries and leaked a boundary on every fifth. That is an incredible improvement on his performances from the home-and-away stage. It may be down to the fact that Starc has played little T20 cricket in recent years.

Prior to the IPL, Starc had only played in two T20 matches following Australia’s quick exit from the 2022 T20 World Cup.

Now, having adjusted to the rhythms of the game, the hope is that Starc can carry this recent form into the T20 World Cup for Australia.

He forms part of a pace bowling group that includes Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Ellis with help from all-rounders Cameron Green, Marcus Stoinis and Mitchell Marsh. Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood have been at the core of Australia’s success across all three formats over the years and it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Australian selectors selected the trio based on experience and their tendency to back the best players.

They’ve won multiple world titles together and are three of the best all-round pace bowlers in the world, however, Ellis has quietly been one of the best Australian T20 bowlers over the last few years.

Since March 2020, Ellis’ T20 powerplay economy rate of 7.08 ranks second in Australia’s squad, and his 8.88 economy rate at the death ranks first. It’s fair to say that Ellis was underused by Punjab Kings in the recent IPL, appearing in only one game as they finished second-last with five wins from 14 matches.

Ellis has performed admirably in his 14 T20 Internationals, taking 24 wickets in 14 matches, boasting a strike rate of 12.7 and an economy rate of 8.0. The latest of his appearances for Australia came in New Zealand in late February, where the 29-year-old took two wickets for 27 runs from five overs during the series.

His ability to take pace off the ball worked well in that series, and on the wickets in the West Indies, Ellis’ change-ups will create several problems for the opposition.

Even if Ellis isn’t selected in Australia’s best team, he should get a chance to shine early in the tournament due to the quality of opponents like Oman, Namibia and Scotland. The fact that Australia can call upon four genuinely good pace bowling options should bode well as the tournament progresses, however, will the lack of T20 cricket played by Josh Hazlewood hinder his performance?

During the two warm-up matches, Hazlewood claimed 2-5 from four overs against Namibia and followed it with 0-55 off four against the West Indies. He hasn’t played much T20 cricket as of late, appearing in only seven games since the conclusion of the 2022 T20 World Cup.

That’s a theme between the big three: they’ve put a lot of focus into Test cricket as of late, forgoing opportunities to ply their trade in T20 competitions when Australia is off duty. At least Cummins was able to feature in the IPL, playing an influential role in Sunrisers’ ride to the final as skipper, ultimately losing to Starc and the Knight Riders. Either way, we know the quality is there, it’s whether Hazlewood can get into the groove of T20 cricket as his teammates did in India.

There’s much less debate around the spin selection with Adam Zampa set to play as Australia’s No.1 spinner in the tournament, a role he has successfully featured in for some time now. Zampa’s quick spin will be a valuable asset to this squad on slow wickets and he’ll no doubt play a crucial role for the team.

Ashton Agar is the squad’s second spinner and was set to be included in their ODI World Cup squad last year before injury ruled him out. He’s played little cricket this year so it’s hard to gauge what sort of from the 30-year-old is in, but he’s played a successful part in Australia’s T20 team in the past with an absurd economy rate of 6.47 from 47 matches. Agar could be an important inclusion on the slower decks in the West Indies.

Assuming Australia play four bowlers, overs will need to come from whatever selection of all-rounders they select. Glenn Maxwell will no doubt chip in with a few if the decks are slow and Green, Marsh and Stoinis can all provide some handy overs if required. The selectors could role with five bowlers, three quicks and the two spinners, although that would require Agar to bat at 7, which isn’t necessarily ideal.

In relation to the quicks dilemma, these are good headaches to have and Australia no doubt possesses a quality bowling attack that will play a key role if they’re to go deep into the tournament.