Golden oldie: Starc claims his place in history as a 35-year-old champion speedster

A few weeks shy of his 36th birthday, Mitchell Starc has crowned one of the finest years by any fast bowler in history with one of the truly great Ashes campaigns.

In a remarkable feat of endurance, Starc maintained an average speed of 142.1km/h throughout the series, right to the end of the fifth Test.

His 153 overs for the series made for a workload topped, only just, by Scott Boland, and late on the last day of the Ashes, Starc patiently waited out repeated questions from the press on just how much longer he will do this for.

Giggling to stand-in skipper Steve Smith as a 2027 Ashes tour enquiry was slightly reframed, Starc’s “I’ll play if you play” was the sum of his crystal balling. Speculation can wait.

For now, his claiming of the Compton-Miller Medal as player of the series is especially apt.

Denis Compton’s last few summers in a 20-year career interrupted by war were among his best. Keith Miller, of course, is one of the greatest all-rounders the game has seen.

Starc’s 31 wickets at 19.93, and the best Ashes strike rate in history (minimum 25 wickets in a series), along with 156 more-than-handy runs, is a compelling nod to two immense figures in cricket’s oldest rivalry.

Starc’s all-round efforts this Ashes series rank in the top handful by any Australian.

Sixteen wickets in the first three innings of the series effectively won it for Australia, in the absence of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood no less.

Back-to-back man-of-the-match performances in Perth and Brisbane (where he changed the game with bat and ball) proved the undoubted highlights of easily the best campaign of Starc’s career.

In all, his 55 wickets in 2025 came at the best strike rate in Test history (minimum 50 wickets in a calendar year).

As noted by Cricinfo in their annual review, a wicket every 28.36 balls through 11 Tests in 2025 was the best on record, trumping Waqar Younis’ 1993 annus mirabilis (29.5) and Jasprit Bumrah’s 2024 blitz (30.1).

Starc played every Test available to him last year. No surprise when you consider he has missed just four of the 53 Australia have played in the past five years.

Rarely has fast bowling seen such a combination of endurance and pace. Again, Cricinfo noted Starc’s wicket-taking spree since turning 35 last January puts him in rarefied air.

Only three bowlers – Courtney Walsh, Sydney Barnes and Glenn McGrath – have taken more wickets in a year at 35 or older. Champions all.

But by that age, Walsh and McGrath were at least 10km/h slower than Starc’s cruising speed above 140km/h. Barnes was significantly slower again.

Yet, Starc’s late-career adoption of the wobble seam has made him a more accurate and particularly dangerous customer.

Men of the moment: Ashes destroyers Mitchell Starc and Travis Head celebrate Australia’s series victory.Credit: Getty Images

New-ball swing, or lack of it, once dictated his fortunes until reverse swing could be found. Now, the former is a true strike weapon – bowled less often for more impact.

It is Starc’s wrist snap – a favourite of the new “Fox Bio” toy in Fox Sports’ coverage –that generates his pace relatively efficiently, in turn allowing him to maintain it where someone like Jofra Archer can fade throughout a day.

With 31 wickets, the Compton-Miller Medal in his keeping on Thursday and a 36th birthday looming, Starc noted his sacrificing of T20 internationals to preserve his body and prolong his Test career.

Beyond a game of golf, a BBL appearance or two and taking in wife Alyssa Healy’s own upcoming international summer, “I haven’t got too many plans,” he said.

Of course the 2027 Ashes tour, and five Tests against India beforehand, are there, but Starc won’t be issuing a statement of intent this far out.

In the form of his life though, he did have a point to make given “there’s so much made about [this Australian XI’s] age profile”.

“I think at times through this series that experience has been a really good thing,” Starc said.

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