Australians underestimated Mitchell Starc. This Ashes masterclass proves his greatness

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Perth: If it is possible to underrate a tall left-arm fast bowler who can hurl the ball down at 145km/h, swing it late on his day, and has also learned to wobble it off the seam as is now the popular custom, then Australians have underrated Mitchell Starc.

He isn’t Captain Fantastic, Pat Cummins. He isn’t “the Bendemeer bullet”, Josh Hazlewood. He isn’t Glenn McGrath, Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson, Jason Gillespie or even Bruce Reid, another left-armer, whose injuries made him one of Australian cricket’s greatest maybes.

Mitchell Starc struck in the first over of the series.

But with startling figures of 7-58, the best of his career, on day one of this Ashes series to round up England for just 172, Starc ensured that there will never again be questions asked of where he rates in the pace bowling pantheon. This was the performance of a leading man, taking charge of a series with all the poise of a Lillee, a McGrath or a Cummins.

Starc is understated when he speaks. He offers the occasional sharp opinion, like the one he offered the other day about the players preferring Brisbane as the first Ashes venue, but overall he likes a low profile.

Two days out from the start of the Ashes, Starc looked and sounded completely assured about the task ahead of him. It was almost unnerving, given the dramas that had accompanied Australia’s pace attack in the weeks leading up to the first ball.

Cummins, of course, had been effectively out of calculations for the Perth Test for weeks due to his back trouble.

When Hazlewood suffered a hamstring strain in his sole Sheffield Shield match in the lead-up, New South Wales and Australian captain Steve Smith summarily forbade Starc from bowling a delivery more.

There was to be a debutant in the Test bowling attack, Brendan Doggett, and an unfamiliar new-ball role for Scott Boland.

But through all this, Starc had the bearing of a fast bowler who knew his skills would be more than enough to trouble a fast-scoring England. Why?

Still fighting fit at 35, Starc’s physical durability has allowed him to have a career long enough to evolve his capabilities an enormous amount. Always fast, tall and with natural left-arm angle, Starc has gained appreciably in accuracy, craftsmanship and self-belief. In the 2023 Ashes series, Brendon McCullum rated Starc as Australia’s player of the series, despite the fact he played just four matches.

As Cummins has said, “Starcy has shown that a few times when he’s been dropped or managed, he’s always come back a better player.”

To his enduring credit, Starc has always valued Test cricket above all else. Perhaps that was because in his early years he seldom played more than a couple Test matches in a row, and he waited many years to get a start at the MCG on Boxing Day.

Starc has only occasionally put his hand up for the Indian Premier League, always doing so when the wider international program suited it. And his recent retirement from T20 internationals was geared specifically at prolonging his Test match days.

Given how he bowled at a heaving Optus Stadium on Friday, it is just as well. England’s top order was examined with the thoroughness of a supreme technician working to detailed blueprints.

Zak Crawley, though avoiding the first-ball fate of Rory Burns four years ago, was artfully drawn into driving at the line but not the length of a ball seaming away from him, offering a catch to the slip cordon from the sixth ball of the series.

Ben Duckett, who had looked aggressive against Boland, was beaten for pace and length and pinned in front of middle and leg stumps: it wasn’t the first time Starc had found a way through to the diminutive left-hander’s pads.

Joe Root, searching for an end to his Australian hundreds drought, was kept scoreless for six balls before skewering an edge into the cordon when squared-up by another ball that seamed away. Starc celebrated each of these wickets with relish, letting out the pent-up emotion that he has, at length, learned to channel.

Starc took his cap from the umpire after an opening spell of six overs that plucked 3-17, figures as meaningful as they were magnificent. Back when he flummoxed Burns with a ball swinging around his pads, Starc was still widely considered a bowler of great balls. Now he is undeniably a great bowler.

Mitchell Starc basks in the crowd’s adulation.

After lunch, England’s best hope of an insurrection lay with Harry Brook and Ben Stokes. Starc, however, has always troubled Stokes, scrambling his defence and often finding the stumps. He did so again here with a nasty nip-backer, which blasted through the gate of an ambitious drive.

While Boland struggled, Doggett’s debut day offered Starc valuable support with a hostile afternoon spell that showcased his ability to deliver awkwardly skiddy bouncers. He saw off Brook and Brydon Carse, aiding Starc in the rapid destruction of the England tail: a slide of 5-12 ensured that the first innings of the series was over inside 33 overs.

With 409 Test wickets at an average of 26.70 and a strike rate of 46.87, he is now just five wickets short of Wasim Akram’s mark for the most by a left-arm fast man in Test history.

Starc accepted the adulation of the crowd for his feats with a return to the laconic pose of a couple of days before. So long as he continues to play Test cricket, Starc will remain understated. Never again will he be underrated.

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