Australian captain Pat Cummins is confident fast-bowling sidekick Mitchell Starc will play in Sydney, but they could leave it late to make a decision.

Starc is battling a rib injury, but pushed through to bowl 25 overs in India’s first innings and 16 in the second.

He spent time off the ground and with physios again in Australia’s dramatic chase for wickets on Monday, but still hit speeds above 145km/h.

He took 1-25 in the second innings, but went without luck, as Australia claimed a final-session victory and a 2-1 series lead.

Australia’s bowlers will have a light week with just a three-day turnaround between the end of the gruelling Boxing Day Test and the Sydney match, which begins on Friday.

Cummins believes Starc will be there with him at the Sydney Cricket Ground and praised his unflinching willingness to push through the pain.

“I’m pretty confident he will be fine, we will reassess in a couple of days,” he said.

“He is managing a couple of sore bits, or mainly one sore bit. It looked like it was ribs or something.

“But he is a warrior, he gets through, his pace doesn’t drop off, he doesn’t even contemplate not being an option to bowl.

“Other than being in pain, he is fully fit and available.”

Even if Starc does play, legendary Australian captain has urged selectors to bring bowling reinforcements into the side.

West Australian Jhye Richardson has travelled to Adelaide to play for Perth Scorchers against Adelaide on Tuesday, while Sean Abbott is the other reserve bowler.

“If Mitchell Starc plays, they’ll definitely want extra cover with the ball just in case and right now I don’t think Mitchell Marsh is providing enough of that,” he told Channel 7.

“So the two options are there (Sean) Abbott either as a bowling all-rounder or (Beau) Webster as more of a batting all-rounder.”

“But the other thing is, even if they leave Starc out and played someone like Jhye Richardson, who also hasn’t played a lot of cricket of late, they might still need some bowling back up for him as well.”

Starc has been coy about his fitness, answering questions this week by insisting he was right to bowl in India’s second innings.

Marsh’s Test career is on thin ice after his latest failure with the bat, a second-innings duck, and benign spells with the ball this series.