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Tall-timber Australian paceman Mitchell Starc should be encouraged to constantly let it rip and ignore the generally accepted line and length theory.
Four or five overs with the new ball, making opposition batsmen duck for cover.
He could be as effective as firebrand Jeff Thomson was in the 70s, putting fear into top order batsmen where the Australians want the early breakthroughs.
At the moment Starc isn’t doing that. It’s a waste of nature.
Starc has the assets. He is 196cm tall, and a left-armer – Thommo was 181cm tall with an inverted right elbow that delivered the ball like a totally legal slingshot.
Thommo made the ball hop off a good length, an incredible delivery, which was dangerous to face. I can attest to that at first hand, having faced Thommo often over the years in Sydney first-grade cricket before he departed to Brisbane.
Starc’s height gives him the bounce advantage as he proved in his last two spells yesterday at Blundstone Arena to eventually beat Sri Lanka with less than a hour to play.
Once Starc started to attack the batsmen he was a far more effective bowler with the figures to prove it.
Peter Siddle has become the foundation stone of the Australian attack, and he too is a far better bowler when he attacks. A very worthy man-of-the-match in Hobart.
Now it gets interesting to see what the national selectors do to replace the injured Ben Hilfenhaus for the Boxing Day Test.
If they are picking on form it has to be Tasmania’s Jackson Bird. In only his second season of Sheffield Shield the 25-year-old has 87 wickets at 19.72, far better figures than any other contenders.
That’s the only bowling change required for the MCG with Shane Watson and Nathan Lyon rounding off the attack.
The batting order won’t be touched unless skipper Michael Clarke’s hamstring problem worsens in a week.
Yesterday he took a first slip catch low down to his right, eventually sitting on his bent right leg.
Anyone who has had a torn hammie knows only too well that can’t be done. But Clarke showed no ill effects so he should be a dead-set starter for Boxing Day.
Weather permitting there should be massive crowds at the MCG, a huge improvement on the pathetic turnouts in Hobart to watch what turned out to be a ripper of a Test.
It would have been over much earlier had Mitchell Starc been in a rip and tear mood from day one.