Kohli's message for under-fire Starc

Maligned Australia spearhead Mitchell Starc has received backing from an unlikely source in India captain Virat Kolhi, who has been surprised at the outrage aimed at his former teammate. 

Starc has been criticised by Test great Shane Warne this summer about his bowling control and body language, negative feedback that his captain Tim Paine said he found hard to understand. 

The left-armer claimed 13 wickets in seven innings at 34.53 in the historic 2-1 Domain Test Series loss to India, down on his career figures which rest at 199 Test wickets at an average of 28.91.

But Kohli, who played with Starc at Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League, said Starc should be supported and not discouraged or face the prospect of 'losing' him. 

"He is a very skilful bowler," Kohli said. "He has got the right mindset. 

"He has been your No.1 bowler for years now. 

"I am a little surprised with the magnitude of the criticism that has come to him. 

"If he is your best bowler, you give him space to work things out and not mount more pressure on him. 

"Because you don’t want to lose a guy like that who is so skilled and wins games."

Paine, speaking on Friday after Australia had toiled in the field for 167.2 overs, defended Starc, who he says is down on form but giving it his all. 

"When he's at his best he's brilliant. When's he not so much, but again he's not running out trying to spray the ball everywhere," Paine said.

"That's what I don't get with the criticism he's getting. Mitchell Starc is trying his absolute best to do the same thing he did a year ago when he was swinging the ball around corners. 

"He's down on confidence a little bit and I sometimes think people forget that he's just a bloke who's trying his best. 

"I know he's playing at the highest level and they expect a lot from him, but it doesn't always work; it's Test cricket, he's coming up against some very, very good batters and he's not quite at his best."

Starc, and fellow quicks Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, will miss the upcoming Gillette ODI Series against India to rest ahead of the two-match Domain Test Series, that starts in Brisbane from January 24. 

Kohli ran the rule over Australia's bowling attack in the series, saying the benign wickets and his side's batters contributed to their rough campaign.

"I wouldn’t say they bowled badly, I would look at it as we have batted well," Kohli said. 

"They have always bowled in areas which are challenging to you as a batsman. 

"I mean Cummins bowled a spell to me and (Cheteshwar) Pujara, about nine overs in Adelaide, we hardly got eight runs in that spell. 

"So we just played it out well. I think their bowling has been absolutely fine from where I see it. 

"As a batting unit we have also struggled when we have not put runs on the board so as good as your bowlers are, if you don’t put runs on the board, you can’t do anything. And then the pressure mounts."

Domain Test Series v India

Dec 6-10: India won by 31 runs

Dec 14-18: Australia won by 146 runs

Dec 26-30: India won by 137 runs

Jan 3-7: Match Drawn

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c, wk), Josh Hazlewood (vc), Mitch Marsh (vc), Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc

India squad: Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hardik Pandya, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk), Parthiv Patel (wk), Ravi Ashwin, Ravi Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar