Tag: Mitchell Starc

LONDON: Left-arm speedster Mitchell Starc has been recalled to Australia’s Playing XI for the second Ashes Test against England.

Experienced pacer Mitchell Starc was added back to the reigning World Test Champions Playing XI and replaced Scott Boland, who was targetted by the English batters in the first Ashes Test in Birmingham.

Earlier in the first Test of the ongoing, Australia captain Pat Cummins opted to leave out Mitchell Starc, who went for aplenty in the World Test Championship (WTC) Final against India at the Oval and lost his spot to right-arm pacer Josh Hazlewood, who returned to the side after recovering from Achilles and side issue.

However, at the commencement of the second Ashes Test on Wednesday the hosts England opted to bowl first. Australia’s Test captain Pat Cummins shared his team’s lineup which included Starc.

Meanwhile, England had already unveiled their Playing XI for the second Test which marked the return of young pacer Josh Tongue and replaced Moeen Ali, who suffered a blister on his right hand’s index finger during the first Ashes Test which saw England succumbing to a narrow two-wicket defeat after Pat Cummins’s masterclass.

Tongue’s inclusion meant England went with an all-pace attack for the second Ashes Test at Lord’s which “offers more to the seamers”.

“We turned up here and have seen a lot of grass on the wicket, it is a bit green,” said Ben Stokes.

“Traditionally Lord’s offers more for seamers and with how Mo’s finger has recovered, actually recovered really well, I thought we would get more with four seamers and went with Tongue,” he added.

Unlike England, Australia decided against an all-pace attack and kept Nathan Lyon in their lineup, who became the first specialist bowler to appear in 100 consecutive Tests.

Additionally, Nathan Lyon is five wickets away from becoming the eighth bowler to claim 500 Test wickets.

Playing XIs

England: Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (capt), Jonny Bairstow (wkt), Stuart Broad, Ollie Robinson, Josh Tongue, James Anderson.

Australia: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wkt), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (capt), Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.

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BIRMINGHAM: Left-arm speedster Mitchell Starc has been left out of Australia’s Playing XI for the first Ashes Test against England.

Mitchell Starc, who went for aplenty in the World Test Championship (WTC) Final against India at the Oval lost his spot to right-arm pacer Josh Hazlewood, who returned to the side after recovering from Achilles and side issue.

As the much-anticipated Ashes begin on Friday after the hosts England opted to bat first in the first Test, Australia’s Test captain Pat Cummings shared his team’s lineup which did not feature Starc.

Notably, the struggling Indian batting lineup targeted out-of-form Mitchell Starc and scored more than five runs per over against him.

The left-arm-pacer leaked 71 runs in his 13.4 overs and took two wickets in the first innings while he was slightly more expensive in the second innings as he conceded 77 runs in 14 overs and took as many wickets.

Despite his below-par performance in the WTC Final, Australia coach Andrew McDonald said Mitchell Starc’s tendency to leak runs is no concern for the Ashes, with his wicket-taking ability crucial to team balance.

“There’s always a balance of attack,” Australia coach Andrew McDonald said.

“Most our bowlers went at above what they’d usually go and we’ve just got to get our heads around that the tempo will be slightly different.

“We’re a team that usually goes at that high two runs per over, here we could go at four runs an over.

“Mitch went at a bit more than that and (what) he generally goes at, but they complement each other really, really well.

“His wicket-taking ability is second-to-none. We’ve got to weigh all that up when we make decisions.”

The five-Test Ashes series will kickstart the World Test Championship 2023-25 cycle that is set to include 68 matches scheduled across 27 series and the third WTC Final to be played at Lord’s in 2025.

Australia might still be revelling in their triumph over India in the ICC World Test Championship Final 2023 but will have to quickly shift their focus to the next WTC cycle that starts with a clash against arch-rivals England.

England have developed a force to be reckoned with in Tests since Ben Stokes and Brandon McCullum took the reigns of the side as they won 11 out of 13 matches.

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VISAKHAPATNAM: Mitchell Starc’s 5-53 and a blazing 66 by Mitchell Marsh helped Australia demolish India by 10 wickets in the second one-day international to level the series at 1-1 on Sunday.

Starc, a left-arm quick, rattled the Indian batting with his pace and swing to bundle out the opposition for 117 in 26 overs in Visakhapatnam.

Openers Travis Head (51) and Marsh, who smashed six sixes in his 36-ball blitz, then took apart the Indian bowling to romp home in 11 overs and level the three-match series with one game left.

Australia finished the chase with 39 overs to spare and bounce back from their opening loss.

Starc led the team’s lethal attack with the wicket of Shubman Gill for a duck after the tourists decided to bowl first after overnight rain.

Two successive strikes from Starc to get returning skipper Rohit Sharma for 13 and then Suryakumar Yadav, out for a second straight first-ball duck, pushed India onto the back foot.

KL Rahul played out the hat-trick ball but lasted for just 11 more deliveries before falling leg before wicket to Starc, who returned figures of 4-31 in his first spell of six overs.

Skipper Steve Smith took a stunning one-handed catch at first slip to dismiss Hardik Pandya for one off the bowling of Sean Abbott, who took three wickets.

Smith went full stretch to his right and was airborne when he took the catch off an edge from Pandya, setting social media abuzz with praise for his “superman” effort.

Virat Kohli attempted to hit back for India with a score of 31 that included four boundaries before he was trapped in front by Nathan Ellis.

Wickets kept tumbling and the departure of Ravindra Jadeja, the hero from Friday’s first match in Mumbai, for 16 off the bowling of Ellis added to India’s woes.

Starc wrapped up the innings with his ninth ODI five-wicket haul. Axar Patel, who came into the team in place of Shardul Thakur, was unbeaten on 29 after hitting two sixes.

The left-handed Head and Marsh came out firing as they smashed Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami to all parts of the ground.

Head began the attack with two straight boundaries off Siraj and Marsh soon joined the charge with a string of fours and sixes.

Marsh, who hit 81 in his team’s opening loss, hit two straight sixes off Pandya to reach his fifty off 28 balls.

Head soon raised his fifty and Marsh hit the winning boundary to take the series decider to Chennai on Wednesday.

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MELBOURNE: Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc has confirmed his unavailability for the upcoming Big Bash League (BBL) season as he aimed to prioritize his fitness for national duty over league cricket.

Starc announced that he would not be available for this year’s edition of BBL because of the Australian cricket team’s busy schedule for the next 18 months, as reported by cricket.com.au.

The 32-year-old speedster claimed that he always prioritized Australia Cricket over any franchise league.

“My approach to the IPL, BBL, I have looked at the Australian schedule and wanting to be as fit and well-performed for that as I can,” he said.

“I will always keep Australian cricket front of mind, and then franchise cricket (second),” he added.

Meanwhile, the Australian side has a tight schedule for the next few months before the T20 World Cup at home, scheduled in October-November. The team is currently on their tour of Sri Lanka, and will then engage in bilateral limited-over series against Zimbabwe, New Zealand, India, England, and West Indies.

It is pertinent to mention here that pacer Starc has recently faced a finger injury ahead of the white-ball series against Sri Lanka and was subsequently ruled out of the series.

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KARACHI: Australia’s left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc has revealed that Australia’s decision of not enforcing the follow-on in the ongoing second Test against Pakistan was unanimous.

Starc, in a media interaction after the conclusion of the third day of the Karachi Test, revealed that it was the touring side’s unanimous decision of not enforcing the follow-on.

“I think we bowled pretty well in the afternoon session. The decision of not enforcing the follow-on was unanimous and everybody was quick to agree on that,” he said.

Starc further claimed the cracks have started to appear on the pitch and the wicket is now helping the ball to reverse swing.

“Cracks have started appearing in the pitch which is supporting the bowling. The bowlers are also getting the reverse swing,” he said.

The left-arm pacer went on to comment on his performance, also lauded the youngsters for their ‘exceptional’ performance on their first tour to Pakistan.

“I am pretty satisfied with my performance. Also, there are a lot of youngsters in our side, who did well on their first tour to Pakistan,” he said.

It is worth mentioning here that the touring side is in control in the ongoing second Test against Pakistan. The Aussies are leading by a mammoth 489 runs as Pakistan could only score 148 in response to Australia’s 556 in the first innings.

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