{"id":1165,"date":"2025-12-11T10:01:01","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T04:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cricketbyjb.in\/?p=1165"},"modified":"2025-12-11T10:02:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T04:32:43","slug":"how-did-mitch-starc-get-this-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cricketbyjb.in\/index.php\/2025\/12\/11\/how-did-mitch-starc-get-this-good\/","title":{"rendered":"How Did Mitch Starc Get This Good?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For a man often regarded as average with the red ball and superhuman with the pink ball, Mitch Starc, in his final few years in Test cricket, is shaping up to be his best. What’s changed?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019d told me in 2017 that Mitch Starc would go on to play 100 Test matches for Australia, I\u2019d confidently wager against it. Here\u2019s a fast bowler who had so many injuries in the first few years of his Test career that ESPN had a graphic specially made by Girish T S<\/a><\/strong> to cover every affected body part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this was just the first half of his career. But he kept going. He was relentless, multi-format, quick, at you, in your face and everything that you\u2019d want from a pacer clocking 150 on the speedgun. His approach to the crease, load up and release so smooth, it felt like a frisbee gliding through the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Credit: Sky Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yet with all the characteristics of being a left-armer, bowling quick, swinging and reverse swinging the ball and whatnot, Starc somehow managed to stay \u201caverage\u201d for the first two-thirds of his Test career. It didn\u2019t help (it actually did, read on<\/em>) that he was surrounded by brilliant colleagues in Josh Hazlewood & Pat Cummins, who are often just too good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even by his own standards, it felt like Mitch Starc was only there and thereabouts, managing to do enough to keep his place and occasionally produce sparks of brilliance in Test cricket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, in the last couple of seasons, Starc has become a constant in Australia\u2019s Test victories and their most present pacer<\/strong>. He\u2019s played 24 Tests on the trot since 2023<\/strong> and also recently went past Wasim Akram<\/a><\/strong> to become the highest wicket-taker for a left-arm pacer in Test cricket history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s changed? Did Starc magically become a genius overnight? Or is it a culmination of a lot of factors, all finally converging at the right moment?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ve done a video on this that you can check out:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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