- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Amid the rubble of yesterday’s demolition job by the Pakistan batsmen, Australia’s selectors should have identified one gem.
Mitchell Starc, the much-maligned 24-year-old quick, refused to be cowed by the rampant Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq as they charged to a 181-run stand on Day 2 of the second Test at Abu Dhabi.
A wonderful four-over spell by Starc deep in the second session encapsulated why he shapes as a potential Test star if he is finally given the opportunity to blossom.
Starc, who astoundingly has only once been given more than one consecutive Test during his 13-match career, was on a hiding to nothing this Test being called up to bowl on a flat deck in his first first-class outing for 14 months.
With Pakistan on 3-439, Starc came to the bowling crease. Vastly-accomplished veterans Younis and Misbah were cruising on 162no and 68no respectively on one of the flattest pitches modern Test cricket has witnessed.
Troubling that pair in such conditions was a monumental task for Mitchell Johnson, the world’s in-form pace bowler, let alone a 24-year-old with no first-class cricket in more than a year.
Yet over the following 30 minutes, Starc had both batsmen in a tangle. Bowling at sharp pace from around the wicket, he was able to angle the ball in at the right handers before straightening it with late reverse swing.
Twice he elicited outside edges which fell short of the slips. Another swerving delivery almost had Misbah caught by Nathan Lyon at point.
Starc’s angle also cramped Younis and nearly had him playing on to his stumps from a French cut. In this one spell he created as many near misses as the remainder of the attack had for the whole day.
It wasn’t an anomaly either. This Test Starc has posed as many questions to the Pakistan batsman as has Johnson, who has again bowled well but without success.
The emerging paceman has also shown that he does not flag when the things are tough. A television graphic displayed during the 138th over showed that his average speed of 143.3 kilometres-per-hour across the match was in fact sharper than that of Johnson (142.7).
To maintain close to your top pace on a stone-dead pitch in searing heat amid such carnage speaks of a player with the type of heart and persistence required to succeed at Test level. Along with his courage, Starc’s guile is also underrated. He manipulates his angles on the crease as well as any Aussie quick.
The most impressive thing about Starc is that he is rarely innocuous. Some quicks become significantly less dangerous when the ball gets weathered. Not Starc. He remains threatening for several reasons.
First of all, his pace continually tests batsmen. Secondly, he is a wily exponent of reverse swing. Thirdly, his capacity for bowling well from a very wide angle around the wicket is quite unique. Johnson, too, exploits this unusual, sharp angle in at right handers.
It is an extremely valuable skill to possess, particularly when the pitch is flat and the batsmen are well set and such variety becomes a godsend.
Starc is a genuinely unique bowler. There is no one like him in world cricket: a 197-centimetre left armer who can swing the new or old ball at up to 150 kilometres-per-hour.
Add to that his lively fielding and rocket arm. Topping off this impressive package is his considerable batting ability which could soon see him classed as an all rounder. Over 13 Tests he has averaged 31 with the bat with three 50s from just 20 innings, including a brilliant 99 on a turning deck in India last year.
If the selectors are so enamoured with the bowling ability of batsmen like Mitchell Marsh and Glenn Maxwell then surely Starc’s proven record of making Test runs should earn him favour.
Yet he has been badly mistreated by the Australian selectors and is excessively criticised by many Australian fans. A legion of Phil Hughes supporters swear blind that the batsman has been shafted by the selectors despite the fact he was given nine and 10 consecutive Tests during his past two stints.
Where is the sympathy for Starc, who gets dumped immediately after every Test in which he returns, seemingly regardless of how he performs?
His mishandling reached a cruel peak when he was “rotated” out of the side for the 2012 Boxing Day Test against Sri Lanka despite having been a match-winner with five second-innings scalps the previous match.
By denying the then 22-year-old his maiden outing in an MCG Test they surely dented the youngster’s confidence. How can a developing quick be expected to adapt to the rigours of Test cricket when they never get more than one match before being dumped yet again?
Starc should be afforded a decent run in the side this summer. If Ryan Harris returns to the fold it is the once-again down-on-pace Peter Siddle who should make way, not Starc.
Who would the pace-shy Indian batsmen rather encounter on hard Australian decks: Siddle operating at 130-135 kilometres-per-hour, or the 6″6′ Starc nudging the speed gun towards 150?