Mitchell Starc: Australia’s perennial crisis man

Australia are no strangers to having a left-armer called Mitchell in their pace attack and having him rip through oppositions at will. There was a certain Johnson who tormented opponents with his express pace from the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s, before his namesake, Mitchell Starc, followed suit: first by carrying forward his legacy and then surpassing it to build a bigger one for himself.

There is no left-arm quick with more wickets with the red ball, and Starc is not too far from widening the distinction to become the all-time leading wicket-taker amongst all left-arm bowlers (pace and spin combined), with only Rangana Herath ahead of him.

Starc, only the second Australian pacer after Glenn McGrath to play 100 Tests, has been busy defying age. He has been in the midst of a purple patch, having recently bagged three successive Player-of-the-Match awards, including two in the ongoing Ashes, which Australia have firmly in their grasp with a 3-1 lead.

Australia entered the Ashes as favourites, not least because of the experience in their ranks and the advantage of playing in the familiar home conditions. However, injury setbacks and team combinations reduced them to fielding an attack with just one of the Big Four (read: Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Starc and Nathan Lyon) twice in four Ashes Tests hitherto.

But here’s the thing with Starc: on his day – and it is more often than not his day – he could fill in any boot and suffice as a Big One, and that is what he has achieved against Ben Stokes and Co.

Days before the series-opener in Perth, Australia’s all-weather pacer Hazlewood was sidelined with a fresh Achilles injury, compounding a hamstring injury from the past. That was when Australia skipper Pat Cummins was racing against time to regain match fitness for the Perth bout. As fate would have it, Cummins sat out in Perth as well as the day-night encounter in Brisbane before joining in Adelaide.

With Australia clinching the series at the earlier juncture in Adelaide, Cummins stepped out for the last two matches to manage his workload. In the meantime, Australia raised eyebrows aplenty with the shock omission of their spin workhorse, Nathan Lyon, in Brisbane and Melbourne, leaving Starc twice to be the lone representative from the Big Four.

Starc acknowledged the anomaly in Brisbane, admitting it was “a little bit different... with no Josh, Pat and Nath.”

But here’s another thing with Starc: it does not matter who is present and who is not.  He stepped up in the absence of his allies and not only spearheaded the bowling attack but also contributed with important lower-order runs to change the complexion of the game.

Starc kicked off the Ashes on a stupendous note, bagging a career-best 7/58 in 12.5 overs in the first innings in Perth before claiming a three-wicket haul in the second to finish with a match haul of 10/113. His first-innings effort nearly single-handedly skittled England out for an unimposing 172, with a record 19 wickets falling on the opening day of the series. England's capitulation in the second innings meant that they squandered the advantage of taking a 40-run first-innings lead, with Australia eventually gunning down the target with eight wickets in hand.

In the second Test in Brisbane, the ball’s colour changed from red to pink. Starc stepped up more spectacularly in an Australia XI sans Cummins-Hazlewood-Lyon, sneaking in another six-for in the first innings and backing it up with a critical 77 off 141 at No. 9. It was his batting smarts that ensured Australia a match-changing first-innings lead. Starc bagged two crucial wickets in England's second essay to orchestrate the host’s second consecutive eight-wicket win in the series.

In Adelaide, Australia batted first for the first time, and Starc once again added heft to the total with a 75-ball 54 at No. 9 when Australia were under momentary pressure. While he had an uncharacteristically quiet time with the ball in England's first innings, managing a solitary scalp, he sent back three England batters in the second essay, with Australia eventually securing an 82-run triumph and an unassailable 3-0 lead.

Starc's quietest outing came in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, where he recorded 1 and 0 with the bat and picked up two wickets each in both innings in what was a second two-day finish in the ongoing Ashes. Incidentally, Starc’s low coincided with England’s victory as they snapped a 15-year, 19-Test winless streak since the 2011 Sydney triumph.

Despite his relatively modest returns at MCG, Starc is the leading wicket-taker with 26 scalps at an average of 17.42, going with 151 runs at 30.20 in six innings in the series thus far.

Whether or not Starc turns up for the New Year’s affair in Sydney, he has firmly made himself a Player-of-the-Series contender. That he has accomplished this in the sporadic presence of his long-term allies only emblazons his status as Australia’s perennial crisis man.