Mitchell Starc is a man who has never been able to have the comfort and security of his place in the current Australian Test side. Inconsistent performances and a lack of aggression may have cost him at times, but let me ask you, should he be considered the most droppable bowler in the side?
When Starc is on there is simply no stopping him, but when he isn’t it can lead to a leakage of runs and see the run rate increase rapidly. However, even with the odd inconsistent spell he is certainly worth persisting with.
It would never be easy running out onto the field knowing that you are one poor performance away from being dropped, it would play on your mind, right?
Obviously being a selector and coach you never want any of your cricketers feeling 100 per cent secure, but how is anyone supposed to perform at their absolute peak if they are selected and dropped regularly? Being a cricketer myself, it wouldn’t sit well with me at all and the amount of pressure I would put on myself to perform would be ridiculous and unnecessary.
When you have other fast bowling options to pick from such as Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris, Josh Hazlewood and so on, you may see why he has been the more droppable option, but I honestly don’t see that anymore.
Ever since Shane Warne made those comments back in Australia’s last summer of cricket, we have seen Starc go to another level.
His performances gradually increased as the summer went on which led to him being Australia’s number one bowler in the 2015 World Cup. He bowled with pace and aggression which saw the opposition batsmen shaking in their boots.
His performance on Day 3 of the first Test against the West Indies started off slowly but never write off a man in form. He finished the day with figures of 4-28 of his 18 overs.
It was certainly a tough day for the Australians to pick up the wickets they needed but men such as Starc continued to persist and they finally got their reward.
Starc’s spell at the end saw him clean up the tail with some devastating yorkers which potentially could have been too much for the top order players. They were practically unplayable.
When I was sitting their watching Starc firing in in-swinging yorkers, you could see this man having a real impact come July.
The conditions will suit him down to the ground and he’s one of Australia’s more naturally talented swing bowlers. A fairly fragile English batting line-up may struggle to cope with a fully firing Mitchell Starc. Yes, he may bowl the odd poor spell here and there but he is certainly worth having on the team sheet.
The current English Test side struggled against New Zealand quick Trent Boult at times in the two-Test series that has taken place over the last couple of weeks. Starc is a very similar bowler. Left-handed, swings it and bowls at a strong pace. He can do as much or even more damage than what Boult did come the first Test in the Ashes series.
I don’t really see how anyone can consider him the most droppable bowler in the side. Maybe in the past, yes, but if we are speaking on current form, Starc has been Australia’s best bowler for months now. The bowlers should be picked on who is in form and who isn’t, and at this moment Mitchell Starc has done more than enough to lose the tag of ‘the most droppable bowler’.
He is a fantastic bowler and he will continue to have success in all three formats of cricket for Australia. He has been in fantastic form for a good while now, does he really deserve to be considered more droppable than others?
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