Australia v England | Second Ashes Test | Day Three
Going off body language alone, one watching Mitchell Starc trudge off the sun-kissed Gabba in its golden hour could have been mistaken for thinking he had just made a duck. Starc had just put together his highest Test score in almost a decade, but his eyes did not even glance towards the raucous Gabba Troopers giving him a standing ovation.
Into the changerooms went Australia’s superhuman speedster; his bowling boots were back on within the hour.
Two days earlier, Starc was asked how it felt to have become the left-arm pace ‘GOAT’ after overtaking Wasim Akram’s record of 414 wickets. “I won’t be calling myself that, no,” he said with barely a smile.
As the 35-year-old has taken his performances to fresh heights in recent weeks, so too has he become even more stubbornly self-effacing. With the least possible fuss, Starc has almost single-handedly willed his side to a near impregnable position in this NRMA Insurance series.
There have only been five days of play but already Starc has put together one of the great individual Ashes campaigns. Mitchell Johnson took 37 wickets in the 2013-14 rout; his left-arm successor is halfway there with 18 in not even four full bowling innings.
“He’s a special player. He doesn’t like to admit it, but he is the GOAT – the greatest lefty of all time,” Michael Neser said at stumps with England teetering on 6-134 trailing Australia by 43.
“He does it with the ball, the bat, and to be next to him, witnessing what he does, is just amazing. The longevity of his career as well I think is something that you’ve got to admire.”
Starc’s extraordinary run, done in the ongoing absence of regular pace partners Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, continued on Saturday, first with the bat, as he crafted an innings-high 77 over two-and-a-half hours as England’s bowlers wilted in the baking Queensland heat.
Starc’s smashing 77 makes England’s suffering surge
It was a calculated hand. To begin, it was a typically free-swinging Starc in full flow. Poor England bowling saw him gifted a sequence of early boundaries as he raced to 18 from his first 23 balls.
That changed when Alex Carey was out to the second new ball. As the obdurate Scott Boland replaced Australia’s last recognised batter, Starc then scored just 12 off his next 58 balls as he and Boland shut up shop.
“The message was to try to keep them out as long as possible, because we knew the later we went into the night session with that harder ball (the more it) was going to benefit us,” said Neser.
“It actually went perfectly the way Starcy went about it. He scored runs and batted time (and) put us in a great position to be bowling under the lights with that new pink ball.”
In those lights’ harsh glare came the third day’s hammer blow: Joe Root, fresh off his maiden Australian ton in England’s first innings, succumbed to the left-armer’s around-the-wicket angle, edging a wider, fuller offering.
Even Starc allowed himself a double fist pump when the television review showed Root’s faint nick. He had another scalp in the game’s final hour, Jamie Smith feathering another caught behind, as the creaking Brisbane venue roared to life.
The paceman’s engine was puttering; battling cramps, and maybe exhaustion, he chugged a can of coke as Australia took a review at the other end. Still every ball of his final over topped 140kph.
“I think the last spell he bowled today was probably his quickest spell of the whole game,” said Neser.
“It just shows what sort of athlete is and what a competitor he is.
“It was serious, serious heat out there and to back it up with the ball like he did tonight, was very special. I’m sure he’ll back it up tomorrow arvo as well.”
As it stood on Saturday evening, Starc’s series wicket tally (his 18 victims have come at 13.11) was double the next highest (Brydon Carse with nine at 26.77).
His feats could vault him into the company of even more bowling royalty on Sunday. Two more wickets in this Test will see him become the first Australian quick since Dennis Lillee to take consecutive 10-wicket match hauls, and just the second Aussie this century after Shane Warne did it in 2004.
And if the hosts go 2-0 up on Sunday, Starc will surely collect his second consecutive player of the match award. Do not expect any self-indulgence then either.
2025-26 NRMA Insurance Men’s Ashes
First Test: Australia won by eight wickets
Second Test: December 4-8, The Gabba, Brisbane (D/N), 3pm AEDT
Third Test: December 17-21: Adelaide Oval, 10:30am AEDT
Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10:30am AEDT
Fifth Test: January 4-8: SCG, Sydney, 10:30am AEDT
Australia squad (second Test only): Steve Smith (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster
England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Harry Brook (vc), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Josh Tongue, Mark Wood
