'We wanted to start in Brisbane too...': Mitchell Starc takes jibe at Cricket Australia ahead of Ashes opener

Starc on the Optus stadium pitch

Starc also went on to admit that five different pitches have been used at the Optus stadium so far.

“We’ll find out in a week, won’t we? They don’t listen to the players; we would have liked to start in Brisbane, too. I miss the WACA. The Fremantle Doctor (the cooling afternoon breeze) comes in. It’s swirly wind here, not one direction. You can have three directions each over," Starc said on the eve of The Ashes opner.

“We’ve had five different wickets here in a sense – we’ve had a pretty slow, flat wicket against the West Indies, we had the first Test here where it cracked up and played a bit like the Waca used to. Last year, we saw lots of wickets on the first day. There’s been a fair bit made about the colour of it, that it’s going to be a green mamba – it’s all good and well to look at the wicket, but until both teams have played on it, we’re not really sure what it’s going to do,” he added.

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Notably, this will be the first time since the 1982/83 Ashes that the series opener will not be taking place in Brisbane. Over the years, The Gabba has been known as the venue from where Australia start their Test summer. However, the Optus stadium is slowly but surely becoming the place where the opening Tests of crucial series are held. It remains to be seen if a similar pattern will continue in Australia's future home red-ball assignments as well.

Squads for both teams