Hope to get spicy pitches in Ashes, not five-day Tests, says Starc

New Delhi: Australia's pace spearhead Mitchell Starc wants curators to prepare lively pitches for the Ashes instead of flat surfaces tailor-made for batting to maximise five-day revenue.

In Australia's last home series where they beat India 3-1, pitches offered assistance to both batters and bowlers, increasing Starc's hopes of its continuation in the five-Test series against England that begins on November 21 in Perth.

"I hope the groundsmen stick to their guns and prepare the wickets they want," Starc said, as quoted by Reuters.

"If we are worried about five days of revenue then there's bigger problems at hand."

The left-armer claimed four wickets for New South Wales in their Sheffield Shield match against Victoria at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Monday.

Though he looked sharp in his first first-class match since July, but warned that pitches like the docile Sydney wicket would turn out to be counter-productive against England who prefer an ultra-aggressive 'Bazball' approach.

"Yeah no doubt. Especially if they’re pretty docile wickets like this. We know the way they're trying to play their cricket. We’ll worry about that next week," he said.

Starc bowled in a red-ball game after a long layoff, which was attributed to his lack of rhythm but said he is close to getting it back.

"I think the break was a good thing, but I just tend to be someone who continuous bowling keeps in rhythm," the 35-year-old said.

"But that’s fine, it was alright, working on a few things, getting that rhythm back.

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"That was probably my longest layoff injury-free for a long time. I was just trying to find that rhythm through the ODIs (against India). It just felt like something wasn’t quite clicking there and it felt pretty close today, so I’m reasonably happy,” he added.

"I’ve just been speaking to (head coach) Ronnie (Andrew McDonald) then, I think I’ve sorted it out and now it’s just getting the engine going again.