Starc thrilled to have Donald on board

Australian Fast bowler Mitchell Starc is pleased to be able to link up with former South Africa quick Allan Donald for the tour of Sri Lanka.

Donald, who worked with Starc at the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL, has been appointed Australian bowling coach on an interim basis.

Starc also spoke about recovering from ankle surgery, and says he feels as good as ever and is looking forward to playing cricket for a longer period of time.

In an interview with cricket.com.au, Starc said of his ankle: "It feels great,

"Having that (floating) bone taken out the back has done wonders for it.

"That movement has been fantastic, ever since I started bowling again after surgery.

"There has definitely been no pain there through the West Indies and through the start of this tour.

"It's a fantastic result and I'm looking forward to hopefully playing a much longer period of cricket now."

Starc will be looking to learn from the vast experience of Donald: "He (Donald) has toured here maybe five or six times, more than any of the other bowlers (in the Australia squad),

"So it's great to get his thoughts on reverse swing, swinging the new ball, and maybe some of the ways the Sri Lankan players have played in the past.

"Not having played Test cricket here before, and comparing it to somewhere like India where you really need to strike as often and as quickly as you can with that new ball to make inroads into the middle order. It's pretty similar over here.

"The ball might last a little bit longer, maybe if the pitch is not being as harsh on the ball and it's swinging for a few more overs than in India.

"So as a bowling unit we want to take two or three wickets with that brand new ball and really get inroads into that middle order and expose them to our pace and our spinners.

Australia will be keen to protect the ball, and ensure that they can unlock potential reverse swing, Starc explained: "That's going to be a big key, and we've spoken a lot about that."

"We do that pretty well,

"We've got certain guys who we give the ball to and try to keep as many hands off it as we can, being here and being quite sweaty in the conditions, especially Colombo, we don't want to get too many hands on the ball and get it damp.

"We're pretty set in our ways in who's looking after the ball, it's a bit more working with the bowlers and talking about different things we can do with our wrist and that sort of thing.

"We've been working with Craig (McDermott) for a number of years now and to bring in AD (Donald) with a different set of eyes and a different set of theories it's always nice to freshen things up and see what he's got to offer on that topic as well.

"We all reverse the ball pretty well, it's just about doing it more often and getting it in those right areas here in Sri Lanka where it's going to be needed a lot more."

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