Hello Sports Lovers,
July month started with exciting action from tennis court in Wimbledon & concluded with enthralling cricketing entertainment. Also the end of the month became special courtesy 19 year old Divya Deshmukh who made history by becoming the first Indian & the youngest ever to win the Fide Women's Chess World Cup. As far as cricket is concerned let's start with Indian men's team's battle with the English men at their backyard. It has been an interesting series so far where despite the Indian team showing some encouraging performances both with bat & ball compared to their last away tour to Australia scoreline still favoring the home side with one match to go in the series. Reasons? We'll talk about that in a separate post soon:) On the other hand women in blue enjoyed a victorious white ball campaign in the same country when they defeated the home side in both T20I & ODI series.
Newly crowned WTC champions South Africa started their post championship era with a convincing 2-0 test series win against a comparatively weaker Zimbabwe side. Highlight of that series? Definitely stand in captain Wiaan Mulder's selfless act of not going for Brian Lara's record test score of 400* & acknowledgement of doing the same out of respect for the Caribbean legend. He set the new record for highest test score by a South African though. They couldn't continue the winning momentum in the T20I tri series though involving home team Zimbabwe & New Zealand when they lost the final to the Kiwis by a close margin.
After a heart breaking loss in the WTC final Australia started the new WTC cycle with a bang when they steamrolled host West Indies 3-0. They followed up this victory with a T20I series win over the same opponent to start finetuning their preparations for next year's T20I World Cup. T20I series win was historical as it was Aussies' first clean sweep in the format & this instance occurred only second time in the history of the bilateral T20Is.
In an interesting all format battle between two Asian neighbors Sri Lanka & Bangladesh the former emerged victorious in the test & ODI series continuing their recent good form across formats whereas faced a setback when the lost their first ever T20I series to the latter. In the domestic T20 circle apart from an intriguing test series against India English crowd were enjoying yet another season of their annual T20 league (Vitality Blast) for both men & women. People of the USA enjoyed another exciting season of Major League Cricket (MLC) where we witnessed a dramatic finish when MI New York upstaged an almost miracle by lifting their 2nd MLC title from being in a position to be knocked out in the league phase.
Despite plenty of white ball cricket this month's Sports Talk will feature a test cricketing legend from down under who has been phenomenal over the years and slowly marching towards ending up as one of the fast bowling legends of the modern day cricket.
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| Mitchell Starc in a test match for Australia Image Credit: Dave Morton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons |
Australian cricket has been blessed for many decades now for producing fearsome fast bowlers. Starting from the days of Lillee, Thomson, McDermott to the decades of dominance by the likes of McGrath, Lee, Gillespie, Johnson & now to the era of destructive trio of Starc-Cummins-Hazlewood. Among the trio Mitchell Starc is definitely the one who has been leading the Aussie pace bowling setup for a fair amount of time now. Starting his career predominantly as a white ball specialist he slowly made his mark in the longest format of the game as well. His recent achievement of reaching 400 test wickets in his 100th test has put him in an elite list of fast bowling giants. Most notably he is not done yet and definitely poised for few more landmarks with his left arm pace.
In an era where T20 cricket is taking the centre stage and fast bowlers preferring the shortest format over the five day cricket to manage their workload, Starc is a prime example of achieving monumental success in red ball cricket along with pursuing his ambition of getting involved in the T20 bandwagon as well. It has been his long time aspiration to play 100 test matches for his country & for that he has been managing his workload quite efficiently including by staying away from the cash rich T20 leagues like IPL for a substantial time. We have witnessed players retiring from test cricket to prolong their T20 career or even cricket boards prioritizing players' participation in T20 leagues over red ball cricket for the country. In such a time someone like Starc who has always prioritized test cricket over T20 format is a real brand ambassador for the oldest format of the game.
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| Starc during 2019 ODI World Cup Image Credit: It's No Game, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons |
What makes Starc so lethal across formats? A perfect combination of pace, swing & accuracy. Yes it's a rare combination but something that has been mastered by this tall New South Wales paceman over the years. Not to forget he struggled enough with frequent injury concerns over the years which even created a question mark over his potential future in red ball cricket too. But it was his hard work & dedication of years that made him the cricketer he is today. He started playing cricket since a very young age (Started his career as a wicketkeeper at junior level cricket) & has been representing his country at the international level for more than a decade now. After the initial struggles of few years in his career 2015 turned out to be a memorable year for him. He had an excellent ODI World Cup that year which saw him playing an instrumental role in Australia's victorious campaign & also being adjudged as the player of the tournament for his consistent performances throughout the series. Since then it has been no looking back for him as he kept climbing mountains of success across formats.
Over the years he has been an important cog in a deadly bowling partnership with Cummins & Hazlewood apart from sharing a strong bond with them off the field. It has been an absolute treat to watch this famous trio operating in tandem & often playing particular roles in destroying the opposition. Apart from his bowling he has been a silent contributor with the bat too more often than not. Specially in test cricket where he has 400 wickets & 2000+ runs to his name along with 11 half centuries he should be considered as an all rounder in the format. He is one of the fewest players to win an ICC trophy across three formats.
Starc has been a standout performer even in the newest form pink ball tests where he is the highest wicket taker in the world so far. We see a completely different Mitchell Starc when he holds that pink ball in his hand. His recent heroics were in his 100th match where he single handedly demolished the Caribbeans at their backyard. It's his enthusiasm to bowl longer spells & challenge the best of the batters that makes him one of the greatest. Often considered as big match player he has proved his credentials in that regard many a times in his career. Knocking Kiwi captain McCullum in the first over of 2015 ODI World Cup final or making match winning contributions for his IPL team KKR during their knockout games in 2024 are some of the instances which show that he loves to lead from the front on big occasions.
In recent times cricket has become more of a batter friendly game courtesy evolution of T20 format & batter friendly conditions across the globe. Under such circumstances being a match winning fast bowler with prolonged success for more than a decade is just outstanding. His own methodology of managing his workload & keeping himself fit for the big tournaments is something any young fast bowler can take a cue or two from. He set up a perfect example of leadership by being honest with his priorities. Now heading towards the fag end of his career (Hope he continues for few more years at top level cricket) he is able to enjoy being part of multi formats, embracing new challenges & also being a guiding force for the next generation. Like any other sportsperson he too will call it a day at some point of time but his contribution as an inspiring individual specially in setting up priorities right will go a long way in future. We hope to witness the magic of Starcy as he is lovingly called for some more time before he decides to hang up his boots.
Before concluding this post let's take a quick look at some of his career achievements so far :
- As of date he is Australia's fourth highest wicket taker in both tests & ODIs
- Record holder for highest number of wickets in a single edition of ODI World Cup (27 in 2019 ODI world cup)
- Fastest in ODI cricket (In terms of matches) to reach 150 & 200 wickets
- Allan Border medal winner in 2022
- Wisden cricketer of the year award winner in 2024
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