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Australian batsmen Phil Hughes and Usman Khawaja received widespread sympathy for not being afforded enough time to prove themselves in the Test side. But what about Mitchell Starc?
The young quick has had an extraordinary nine separate stints in the Test line-up since debuting two-and-a-half years ago.
That is not a typo – Starc’s 12 Tests have been spread across nine different stints. Six times he has been brought into the side, played just a solitary Test, and then been absent for the following match.
Admittedly, injury has forced him out of the team a couple of times. But largely he has been either dropped, rested or rotated – who really knows which term is appropriate.
Starc’s last appearances at Test level were in the Ashes in England last year. He played the first Test, missed the second, played the third, missed the fourth and played the fifth. This was the supposedly abandoned rotation policy at its worst.
If such treatment was meted out to a developing batsman, then Aussie cricket pundits and followers would be frothing in anger. Yet Starc’s plight has been almost entirely overlooked.
Instead he is often branded an inconsistent Test bowler, a criticism which has been levelled at him by many Roarers.
How, exactly, is a player who is introduced to the Test side at just 21 meant to adapt to the toughest form of international cricket when they are constantly in and out of the XI?
Considered in that light, his return of 40 wickets at an average of 33 across his 12 Tests is actually very solid. When you factor in his lively fielding and languid lower-order batting, which has reaped him 431 runs at 31, his stop-start Test career has been impressive.
But when will he finally get the extended run in the team he needs, and deserves, to establish himself as a Test player?
Well, his time may have arrived. Right now only one paceman is a certainty to play in Australia’s next Test series in October against Pakistan in the UAE – Mitchell Johnson.
The future of inspirational veteran seamer Ryan Harris is a mystery. Harris, who turns 35 this year and has a fragile body, is currently recovering from serious knee surgery.
He looks extremely unlikely to play against Pakistan and, given his age and injury history, there are no assurances he will don the baggy green ever again.
Meanwhile, the third of Australia’s veteran quicks, Peter Siddle, is uncertain, with selectors concerned by his dramatic drop in penetration which has reduced him to a medium pacer.
Concerns also surround the other two pacemen who have featured strongly in Test teams and squads in recent times, James Pattinson and Jackson Bird.
Both young fast bowlers had long layoffs last year due to stress fractures of the back. Then, early in their comebacks this year, they again picked up injuries.
This leaves Starc as a frontrunner to bowl alongside Johnson and spinner Nathan Lyon in the UAE.
He would deserve the opportunity. If he gets it, and performs well, he should be retained in the side for the home Tests against India next summer, regardless of the availability of Pattinson or Bird.
The selectors must stop messing around with Starc’s career and give him the chance to prove he can be a force at Test level. If handled properly he can be a champion.