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Opinion
There’s been a fair degree of criticism of Mitchell Starc.
Some was from high-profile detractors like Shane Warne, who hasn’t hidden his dislike of Starc being in the Australian Test side.
Warne isn’t the only one though. There have been many others, both in the mainstream media and on social media. He seems to be this current side’s version of Mitchell Johnson, who was maligned constantly throughout his career.
Is he the worst third wheel to complement two strike bowlers?
In the first Test he was being considered part of a bowling attack to parallel the best for Australia in history, but by the fourth Test he was pilloried as a reason for losing the series. I consider that an over reach, not least because those comparisons surely have to be judged with hindsight.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Starc’s criticisms seem to centre on his lack of penetration, lack of economy, lack of strike power, only removing the tail, not swinging the red ball like he does the white, and not using the yorker often enough.
Recent criticism was that in this just finished Test series against India, he he only took 11 wickets at 40.72, especially as 4-53 came in one innings.
Those other innings therefore only produced one wicket per innings. He struggled at times and the average of 40 is most un-Starc-like, but he did create chances regularly with a number of edges going through and over slips.
At his pace, an edge through or over slips is automatically a four and elevates that average. He appeared to lose rhythm throughout the series – the bane of any bowler – but those fliers through the slips say he was still on or about off stump, just not consistently in the high 140 kilometres-per-hour range, one of his most potent weapons in Tests.
The criticism got me thinking, though. Who shapes up as a potent third wheel to undisputed match-winning bowlers when they invariably take most of the wickets on offer?
Of course the match winners don’t take four or five every innings either, nor ten in a match, but we have some celebrated and respected third wheels who represent the support required for the match winners.
I’ve chosen three respected third wheels to compare Starc against. Match winners Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins have had Mitchell Starc to support them, while Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne had Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie as third wheels. Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson had Max Walker. I’ll also throw Nathan Lyon in the mix for comparison too.
| Player | Tests | Wickets | Average | Economy | Strike rate | Four wickets | Five wickets | Ten wickets | Wickets per Test | Wickets per innings excluding those taken in four-wicket and five-wicket hauls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mitchell Starc | 61 | 255 | 27.57 | 3.35 | 49.3 | 13 | 13 | 2 | 4.18 | 1.51 |
| Brett Lee | 76 | 310 | 30.81 | 3.46 | 53.3 | 17 | 10 | 0 | 4.07 | 1.56 |
| Jason Gillespie | 71 | 259 | 26.13 | 2.85 | 54.9 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 3.65 | 1.54 |
| Max Walker | 34 | 138 | 27.47 | 2.25 | 73.1 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 4.05 | 1.56 |
| Nathan Lyon | 100 | 399 | 32.12 | 2.99 | 64.3 | 16 | 18 | 3 | 3.99 | 1.56 |
*WeB: Wickets per innings excluding those taken in four-wicket and five-wicket hauls
So what does all of that mean?
In a Moneyball sense, Starc is an excellent investment. In fact at 4.18 wickets per Test striking every 49.3 balls (second only to Pat Cummins’ 47.1 all time for Australia), he’d be second into my Test team with the ball.
When he doesn’t take a bag, he averages 1.5 – the same number of wickets an innings as all other players compared to. Josh Hazlewood only averages 0.84 wickets an innings when he doesn’t take a bag of four or five.
Pat Cummins is an outright match-winning bowler who averages 4.8 wickets a Test and 1.79 wickets per innings when he doesn’t take a four or five wicket haul. He doesn’t always open the bowling, but is invariably the go-to man to finish.
Cummins, Dennis Lillee, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne are never constantly mentioned as having a large number of wickets in their tally from nine, ten and 11. So why are players like Starc and Johnson criticised as tail mops? Logical use of assets by a captain, surely?
Starc needs to find his rhythm and his propensity to niggles doesn’t help that, but his favourable record above was developed despite those niggles and a revolving door selection in his first dozen Tests.
I can see how the media look for a scapegoat and want a headline, but too often it is Starc and not Lyon. His Test bowling average, strike rate and wickets per Test are elite, yet he’s considered as only effective on certain wickets.
Meanwhile Josh Hazlewood averages 3.8 wickets per Test to Starc’s 4.18, and strikes every 56 balls to Starc’s 49.
So is Mitchell Starc lucky to be still playing Test cricket for Australia? Not as far as I’m concerned. Sometimes the opposition just plays better.
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