Star player opens up about not returning to IPL 2025 after India-Pakistan tension suspended league, says ‘time will tell…’

Star players from Delhi Capitals team had refused to return to India after IPL 2025 resumed amid India-Pakistan border tensions last month.

Delhi Capitals team suffered a big blow immediately after the IPL 2025 was suspended for week when star pace bowler Mitchell Starc took the decision not to return to India. The T20 league was suspended for a week amid India-Pakistan tension after India’s ‘Operation Sindoor’ in response to Pahalgam terrorist attack.

Starc was stuck in Dharamsala when the IPL 2025 match between DC and Punjab Kings had to be suspended due to ‘blackout’ in the city and nearby areas after Pakistan’s drone attacks in the aftermath of ‘Operation Sindoor’.

The Australian left-arm pacer was an essential member of Axar Patel’s DC, claiming 14 wickets in 11 matches in IPL 2025 before the fateful night of May 8 when their match needed to be abandoned. All players were immediately evacuated out of the city and players from both sides had to return to Delhi in a specially arranged train as flight operations had been suspended in Dharamsala and all nearby airports.

Starc’s wife and Australia Women’s captain Alyssa Healy was also attending the game when the game was stopped and the stadium was evacuated due to Dharamsala’s proximity with the international border. The 35-year-old pacer said he had his doubts heading into that IPL 2025 game between Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings given the tensions.

“I’m comfortable with my decision and how I felt about the whole situation and how it was handled,” Starc was quoted as saying by The Age.

Mitchell Starc in the nets for Australia ahead of the WTC final pic.twitter.com/VlnJH0hFlI

— Cricketism (@MidnightMusinng) June 5, 2025

“That’s why I made my decision post-that, and my focus changed to red-ball cricket for about a week prior to coming over here (the UK).

“Time will tell with repercussions or how it looks with guys that didn’t return. But I’ve had my questions and concerns leading into that game, and obviously we saw what happened, which played a part in my decision,” he said.

Starc revealed that due to similar reasons he had decided not to travel to Pakistan for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 with the Australian team earlier this year as well.

“There was a little bit of that to my decision around the Champions Trophy (in Pakistan) and then once the tournament (IPL) was delayed, you start to think about guys’ preparation for the Test match,” he said, referring to Australia’s World Test Championship (WTC) final against South Africa to be played at Lord’s from June 11.

Starc said things were ‘handled differently for different players and different teams’ in Dharamsala. Both the teams along with broadcast crew had returned to Delhi from Pathankot in a special train.

“Things were handled differently for different players and different teams, the guys up in Dharamsala, the Punjab guys were part of that, and while both teams had similar experiences up there, all those guys returned for Punjab, and Jake (Fraser-McGurk) and I chose not to,” he said. “It was a very individual decision, and I’m happy to live with whatever comes of that.

“I’m still heavily committed to the Delhi group, and I’m not someone that’s gone into tournaments and pulled out after being picked up in an auction or whatever that looks like. These are different circumstances,” Starc said.

Starc, who was the most expensive player in IPL 2024 season, had been bought for Rs 11.75 crore by Delhi Capitals at the IPL 2025 mega auction.