Sydney, Nov 24 (PTI) Pacer Mitchell Starc was Saturday drafted into Australia's squad for the final T20 International against India as a replacement for the injured Billy Stanlake.

Stanlake suffered an ankle sprain during a catching drill ahead of the washed-out second T20I in Melbourne on Friday.

He was replaced by Nathan Coulter-Nile for the game and has now been ruled out of the final match at the SCG, with Starc taking his place in the 13-man squad.

Starc, 28, last played a T20 for Australia in September 2016, against Sri Lanka in Colombo. His last T20 match for Australia on home soil was at the Sydney Cricket Ground in February 2014 against England.

The left-arm pacer, who was originally rested for the ongoing three-match T20I series against India, turned out for his state side New South Wales in the last round of Sheffield Shield fixtures against Queensland.

He was expected to sit out the next round of the first class competition in a bid to prepare for next month's four-Test series against India.

"(Starc has) got so much experience in the limited-overs games as well and we've seen how dominant he can be when he gets it right with the ball," skipper Aaron Finch said.

"We'll have a look at the wicket this afternoon and discuss the side but coming straight off a Shield game with an eye on the first Test, his preparations will be really good."

Australia lead the series 1-0 after winning the first match by four runs (DLS) at the Gabba in Brisbane on Wednesday. The second game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground was abandoned due to rain.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)