With a total of 26 wickets at an average of 17.42 in the Ashes so far, Australian pacer Mitchell Starc has been the leading wicket-taker in the series against England. With Australian captain Pat Cummins being rested for the final two Tests in the series, Starc has been the leader of the pace attack for the hosts in the series. While Travis He’d and wicket-keeper Alex Carey have scored 437 runs and 291 runs respectively in the series so far with the Sydney Test starting Sunday, former Australian cricketer Michael Hussey has put Starc as his contender for the man of the series.
“I’ve got Mitch, with 26 wickets at an average of 17 and some important runs with the bat, marginally ahead of Travis Head and Alex Carey to be crowned man of the series after the Sydney Test. I always knew he was talented, but when he first came into the white-ball team for an ODI series in India he was very mild-mannered and shy. He bowled left arm with decent pace, but I remember thinking, how is anyone ever going to be as good as Mitchell Johnson?,” Hussey wrote in The Age.
Starc, who has picked a total of 428 wickets at an average of 26.43 in 104 Test matches in his career, has played in 26 Ashes Tests in his career and has picked up a total of 123 wickets at an average of 25.26. Only two peers in this century have taken more wickets than Starc in an Ashes series with Mitchell Johnson’s tally of 37 wickets in the 2013-14 Ashes and Pat Cummins’ tally of 29 wickets in the 2019 Ashes being the other two instances. The Sydney Test will be Starc’s 27th Test in a row for the pacer as he has only missed four out of Australia’s 56 Tests since the 2019 Ashes. Hussey recalled a time early in Starc’s career when the pacer was rested for the Boxing Day Test against Sri Lanka in 2012 and how Starc did not want to rest and how the pacer was shy early in his career in terms of expressing himself.
“Mitch had only been in the Test team for a year, and he’d just bowled us to victory with a six-wicket haul against Sri Lanka down in Hobart, when the selectors rotated him out of the team for the 2012 Boxing Day Test. I was angry. It was the second-last Test of my career, and I was cherishing every moment I could spend in the baggy green cap. He was bowling so well, and I couldn’t believe they were going to rest him. I was saying to him, “It’s not every day you get to play a Boxing Day Test, don’t rest!”I knew he didn’t want to, but he was shy and still relatively new to the set-up, and he didn’t want to ruffle any feathers. As it turned out, Mitch struggled with injuries for quite a few years after that, and it wasn’t until 2016 that he got to play in one.Mitch is a lot stronger with his views now, and more confident to express them. But he has always had great self-awareness about his priorities and what he needs to do to prepare for games.He was only 22 when he rejected offers to play in the IPL to get ready for the 2013 Ashes, and he’s sacrificed millions of dollars since then to make sure he’s at his best when he’s playing for Australia. There’s a lot to admire about that. That self-awareness has been one of the secrets of his success, and the reason he’s bowling 145km/h at the age of 35,” wrote Hussey.
The former Australian cricketer also recalled a Big Bash game where he got his reading of Starc’s bowling wrong and how his batting partner Jacques Kallis was clean bowled by Starc. “I was batting against Mitchell Starc in a Big Bash game – Sydney Thunder versus the Sixers. I faced a few balls and every one of them came into me. I got a single and came down to chat to my batting partner, our star South African import Jacques Kallis. “No worries, mate,” I said. “There’s no swing back into the right-hander. It’s just going across you.” Naturally, Starcy’s first ball to Jacques was a massive in-swinging yorker, stumps everywhere. “Oh no,” I thought. “What have I done? I’m so sorry.” Jacques didn’t say anything to me and, to be honest, I don’t think it would have mattered because it was one of those unplayable deliveries that only Starcy can produce.There are plenty of batters around the world who’d know how Jacques felt that day. Brendon McCullum, who was cleaned up by Starc in the first over of a World Cup final. Rory Burns, with the first ball of the 2021 Ashes. Zak Crawley, who edged one to slip in the first over of this series,” wrote Hussey.
