“He takes the new ball, sets up a mark for himself, grips the ball firmly hides it so that the batsman facing him cannot decipher him, starts running in slowly taking some long slow steps, and all of a sudden runs steaming in towards the batsman, there is a fear growing inside the batsman now, he lands his foot just on the line, the delivery is legal, the ball has already left those magical hands at a fiery pace, it is an in-swinging Yorker and the batsman has no answer to that, the stumps go cartwheeling behind the wicket-keeper…”
And that my fellows was Starc, Mitchell Starc, the Starc that we have not seen in international cricket for about seven months approximately now.
Seven months ago, Starc was the most feared bowler in the cricketing world. He has been missed dearly by Australia during this period. They missed him during the series against India, then against South Africa but not as much as they missed him in the world T20 2016. The missed him dearly during their World Cup campaign. Who knows, he might have been able to stop Kohli from scoring those 39 runs in the last three overs and maybe Australia would have qualified for the semi-finals and maybe after that even win the World T20. After all, he is the deadliest bowler with the white new ball and just as good as anybody at the death.
Not only Australia missed him, the Royal Challengers Bangalore missed him pretty much at the start of the IPL 2016. Their bowling looked totally clueless. RCB’s batting never disappointed and they couldn’t disappoint with Kohli and ABD in their ranks. Plus they were in imperious form too. But no matter how much runs the batsmen would put up, the bowlers would always find a way to give it all away. Now if Starc was all fit and playing, RCB would have been a totally different side. They missed him as they lost out in the IPL final.
Every fan of Starc is extremely happy about his return but will he be the same old Starc who used to dominate batsmen? Will his injury have an adverse effect on him? Well, he was injured last year during the IPL too, but after his comeback, he was at his lethal best. It would be wrong to underestimate his abilities after the injury but as this injury was a very serious one so who knows. Only time can tell.
Whether he will be the same or not is a long debate that will keep going on until he steps on the cricket field again and starts performing the way he was before. The debate will get to a rest then. One point I would like to add is that Andrew Flintoff of England was one hell of a player and jeez he used to bowl fast and quick and with quality! The injuries made even him a lesser player so maybe Starc won’t remain the same, but only time can tell.
Enough about the debate, Starc has a record to break. All eyes will be on him to perform at his best again but there is something more to look for. Starc’s ODI stats are staggering. He has taken 90 wickets till now in only 46 matches and at an astonishing average of 19.53, he takes a wicket every four overs, that’s even more amazing. The fastest in terms of ODIs to take hundred ODI wickets is Saqlain Mushtaq. Saqlain did it in only 53 ODIs, but Starc is not far away from breaking it, Starc only has to take 10 wickets in the next 6 ODIs to break the record or in the next 7 ODIs to match it. It seems certain that he will break the record considering the rate at which he strikes.
Seven months ago, Starc was the bowler who everyone feared. If there was a bowler in this batsmen dominated era who would send chills down the spine of a batsman it was Starc. If there was a bowler who had to defend runs at the death it was Starc. If the captain needed a breakthrough he would turn to Starc to give him one. Starc has been missed. Now, he’s back, and will step on the field in the tri-series against West Indies and South Africa being played in the Caribbean.
Starc says he’s “fit, strong and ready to play some cricket.” Looks like he is raring to be back on the field and send chills down the spines of the batsmen.
