Has Mitchell Starc lost his mojo?

Both injury and coaching: multiple stress fractures has meant time out, and a complete remodel of his action.

It seems the backroom has tinkered with Greens runup. He doesn't have an acceleration to the crease as he previously did. He needs 2 or 3 more steps in the run-up so he can accelerate and explode in the last step. He might get that 5-10 kph back. He'll need it, otherwise he is just a medium pacer with no threat. You're right about the premature adulation, but old players get paid for comment, so he may say the same thing in 5 years time about another group.

What could be the reason for Green losing zip - injury or coaching. I also read, Starc was instructed to continue bowling short at the Indian batsmen, even when it was obvious the opposition batsmen were not being perturbed. And now, Starc might be carrying a niggle, it is suspected. Glenn McGrath hailing this as the greatest Australian pace attack ever after the first test looks a premature comment now.

Starc floating the ball. he does this often when he gets frustrated. Ball needs some form of gravity assist. What is floating? Floating is basically you push the ball in down angle. If you push the ball little bit in air ball will land on its own gravity and it would be unpredicatable based on which side of the seam it lands. So how to bowl them you just have to bend your back little more to push it in a tight arc. if you dont bend back and push , you over pitch the ball or beamer to wicket keeper. it takes lots of energy though. Tall players have back problem. if cummins bowl with seam instead of scramble , he would be more deadly. But he seems to believe if he bowl seam ball it going everywhere. He will be bowling seam once he lose a yard of pace.

That’s a fair assessment, Mukhtar. The problem is complicated – this year with a hub – by having the ready replacements like Richardson sitting on the sidelines only bowling in the nets, as they couldn’t go to a hit and giggle game and be called back. having said that, the Indians had the benefit of a large squad and the bowlers stepped up well. Sadly Green, the 5th option, was not bowling as he did to get a spot. His whole run up was a jog and he didn’t produce the zip he has in Shield. I hope he hasn’t tried to change what got him picked. Another thought on the rhythm issue of a coupla Aussies was the 3rd umpire calling no balls, something bowlers haven’t been worrying about until a wicket is taken. Having to check your runup, will certainly throw your rhythm off.

Ideally, Starc would play a couple of first class games, regain rhythm, and re-establish his claim over the spot in the national team. However, this is unlikely. I also read on this forum, Langer has not developed competition among pacers. International cricket is about the strength of the first and second teams. England, even India showed the depth in their fast / fast medium bowling stocks. Australia has put all its eggs in Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood. Now, Starc is out of form. Add Lyon’s struggles to the mix, and Paine only has 2 wicket taking options: Cummins and Hazlewood. Elite bowlers like Cummins can take wickets while being economical. Starc is neither economical, nor picking wickets – he is a source of runs for batsmen, they look forward to playing him.

Starc had plenty of opportunities. Fact is he is down on form and should have been dropped for the fourth test. We can’t predict when players will find form. To somehow single out Paines decisions on Day 5 of the 4th test after Starc had repeatedly demonstrated he was not upto the task is absurd.

Fact is Paine virtually bowled his Quicks into the ground. Truth be it they are one of the most lethal fast bowling attacks but Paine was intent on bashing the Indians with pace and verbal abuse and completely mismanaged his bowling line up. Good captain's don't do that and they paid the price. If they drop Starc it's an admission they got it wrong. After the first test victory their focus was to blast the Indians out and it backfired so simple as that.

Starc's facial expression says it all.

Mitchell Starc took 13 wickets at over 34 in 2018-19 vs India..Lyon took 21 at 30 in India but only 5/328 in the last 2 years of the series. It doesn't matter what they have done against other teams at home in the last couple of years but this is what they did against India at home they last played them. For some reason, the Australian management seemed to think that things would be better because they had Smith and Warner back and Marnus was a better batsman compared with last time...as if this makes Starc and Lyon better bowlers against India! Maybe Langer needs to stop watching A Star is Born and start concentrating on the task at hand.... India won because they didn't believe they were playing against "Australia's best ever attack"... it's a pity Australia didn't believe the same thing

As an extreme pace option 3-5 overs is just what you want opening and bursts through the innings. So much so England rushed Jofra Archer in to do the same thing, with no desire to produce control. That's what Hazelwood and Cummins are for! Having said that, Starc regularly produced chances and fielders regularly dropped them. Starc lost rhythm after the 1st Test - physical or mental niggles possibly. As a bowling attack though, Paine was restricted come the 4th Test as Starc appeared injured and Lyon and Green couldn't penetrate. As for sand paper, apart from being a ridiculous comment, you do realise a left armer doesn't need reverse swing to swing it in to a right hander, don't you?

Yeh right, because Starc had done such a great job in the first 3 tests right? Starc wasn’t given the new ball because he didn’t look close to taking a wicket due to a lack of swing (as was the case in Sydney) and was leaking runs at a time when all 3 results were a possibility. It’s a really tricky situation for any captain to be in, unless of course you’re banging away on your computer days after the event. Then it’s all to easy right? And the kicker is that if Paine throws the ball to Starc and nothing happens he gets bagged for not changing his ‘tactics’. Some of this criticism is just ridiculous.

I'd caveat that by saying Starc is normally a very effective old ball bowler, when there is some reverse swing. However, in these Covid days of no saliva, the ball doesn't seem to have reversed at all this series. So that had a real impact on Starc's bowling during the last 2 tests on flatter pitches.

I'm not sure I agree with your interpretation. You can't blame Starc's current bowling on not bowling with the second new ball on Day 5 at the Gabba (i.e., the last 20 overs of the series). He hadn't bowled well in either the 3rd or 4th tests, and took the new ball on every other occasion. He was obviously labouring on Day 5 at the Gabba and the fact he had scans on his hamstring after the game confirms this. He bowled well enough in the first two tests without being at his absolute best, then struggled with fatigue during the back end of the last two games. Much as I like Starc (and believe he is often unfairly maligned), he shouldn't have played at the Gabba, and shouldn't really play in any game where he is not close to 100% fit. He doesn't have the good line and length to fall back on if he isn't bowling explosively. If he's fit, I think he still could have a role to play in South Africa, but I don't think he should play all 3 tests. On the available evidence, it's unlikely that Starc would have been able to blast out the batsmen at the end of the game. He got no swing with the previous 3 new balls in the match and looked flat and tired during the whole game. As you say, we will never know for sure if he could have had an impact, but I find it hard to criticise Paine too much for not bowling him more on Day 5, given how he bowled with the opportunities he had.

You explained it well in the article, Paine didn’t utilise Starc effectively towards the latter part of the series. Whether this was all his doing or did Langer have an involvement we won’t know. Hopefully Paine reverts back to using Starc for what he is best at, a new ball short spell bowler, not one to flog down 20 mid innings overs with an old ball

Yes, it is true that Starc was a bit down, but Paine's decision to give the new ball to Lyon (who was also below par) before Starc was dumbfounding. We all know what Starc can be like with a new ball, and against lower order batsmen. Absolutely bizarre IMO.

You can complain about empty 1st/2nd slip but it's hard complaining about a vacant 4th slip!!! There's only 9 fielders to move around. re Starc........how many "new ball" bowlers do we need? Starc rarely gets more than about 3 overs at the start.....that's enough to proof over and again that his control is sub-par and his swing is absent. Alas........he hasn't lost his "mojo" so much as his sand paper.

I was interested in your thought that Starc would struggle in South Africa. Why do you think that will be the case, Graeme? I agree right now, he's probably tired from a long 5 or 6 weeks of bowling and he, like the rest of the Australian team, would no doubt be trying to mentally get themselves up, given they lost a series most were expecting them to win handily. IMO, it comes down to the pitches and out fielding in Sth Africa. If the Saffers roll out pitches that offer anything AND Starc gets a bowl AND the team holds early chances, his confidence will soar and I reckon he'll quickly be back to his best.

Starc, Paine, Langer must share the blame for this underperformance. The nicks that went through empty 3rd, 4th slip region, the incessant short pitch bowling contributed to the debacle in the 4th test. Starc is clearly out of form, down on confidence: needs rest. What doesn’t Langer see here!