Starc criticism still off the mark: Paine

Australia captain Tim Paine has come to the defence of maligned Test spearhead Mitchell Starc after the hosts failed to bowl India out for a third straight innings to leave their hopes of drawing the Domain Test series hanging by a thread.

Starc and his fellow Australia bowlers were plundered by India to the tune of 7-622 declared across almost two complete days of the fourth Test at the SCG.

It followed India making 7-443dec and 8-106dec in the third Test in Melbourne, where India retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a 137-run win.

With the exception of Pat Cummins in the Victorian capital, all of Australia's bowlers have felt the wrath of India's batting unit, led by obdurate first-drop Cheteshwar Pjuara, who batted for more than nine hours to make 193 in Sydney.

But Starc appears to be the heavy magnet for criticism, primarily from Australia legend Shane Warne, who called the left-armer's spell in the first Test "atrocious" and has continued to question his form.

Starc finished India's first innings with figures of 1-123 from 26 overs – the most overs bowled in an innings without a maiden by an Australian on home soil since six-ball overs were introduced.

Despite his inconsistent form this series, the left-armer has taken 13 wickets and is just one shy of 200 Test scalps with a career strike-rate of 51.1, one of the best in Australian history. 

Starc has the support of former Australia captain Ricky Ponting and the nation's current Test skipper Paine, who says his spearhead is just low on confidence.

"I don't know what people expect from him," Paine said after play. 

"His stats for his whole career have been outstanding.

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

"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.

"But we've got full confidence with a little bit of hard work, and he's going to have a little bit of time off during the one-dayers, so there's some time for him to go back and look at what's going wrong with him at the moment.

"And then he addresses that and we know when he's at his best he's as good as anyone in the world.

"Has he been at his best this series? No, he hasn't. Has he been for a little while? Probably not.

"Starcy knows that, he's working on it, he's being really honest about it and he's trying to figure out exactly what it is that's missing at the moment."

While Starc has been copping the brunt of the negative feedback, Paine said Australia's bowling unit as a whole has not been up to scratch for the past two Tests.

He said fatigue may have played its part given Australia were forced to field for 169.4 in the first innings in Melbourne and 167.2 in the first innings in Sydney.

Bowling coach David Saker said he had an "animated chat" with the bowling group and coach Justin Langer after play on day one, but Paine played down the meeting and said everyone was pulling in the same direction.

"We always have discussions post game but in terms of (people) being on a different page, no," Paine said.

"We know all the time, I think we're pretty clear on what we're trying to do.

"Yesterday afternoon – and to be fair probably the first hour in the morning then the first hour after lunch – we got it slightly wrong.

"It can sometimes look like (people are on different pages) but we know what we're trying to do.

"Sometimes you don't quite execute and teams can get away from you and that's what happened."

Paine did not blame the pitch for Australia's poor showing with the ball, but said he would have liked to see more of the traditional pace and bounce that is synonymous with Australian wickets.

"The pitch here and the pitch in Melbourne didn't make us bowl as badly as we probably we have in this Test," he said.

"We've just been outplayed. Both teams have had similar conditions. But from me, who also loves watching Test cricket, I'm sure guys would like to see a bit more pace and bounce in Australia, something we've probably become accustomed to in Australia.

"But it is what it is. 

"We've just got to play better on whatever wickets are served up, wherever we are in the world."

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: Fourth Test, SCG

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