Image Credit- AP
While he recognised that passing 350 wickets was
“humbling” as Australia’s Test attack proceeded to set records this
summer, Mitchell Starc will only truly take a step back and consider his
individual accomplishments once he hangs up his boots.
Following Nathan Lyon’s 500th Test wicket, Pat
Cummins’ and Josh Hazlewood’s 250-run haul this season, Starc took his turn to
reach yet another milestone on the first day of play at the Gabba. Upon
capturing Alick Athanaze from behind, he made history as the fifth bowler from
Australia to reach 350 Test wickets. With four wickets against 68 at the end of
the day, he is currently four wickets short of Dennis Lillee’s record of 355,
making him the second most prolific quick in the nation behind Glenn McGrath (563).
“Numbers are nice, [it’s] something else to
reflect on when I’m all done. Still got some wickets to take,” Starc said.
“Nice to have an impact today, go past that one…Gaz [Lyon] was saying
there’s another 150 to go.
“They are all nice things to tick off and very
humbling [to close in on Lillee] but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.
Need 20 wickets to win and we’ll all reflect on [the landmarks] when we are
finished, sitting around with a beer at a golf course somewhere. At the moment
we are just enjoying our cricket as a group of players.”
Starc has an incredible record against the pink ball;
from 12 day-night Tests, he has taken 65 wickets at an average of 18.09, and he
has come to feel that the pitch and its effect on the ball are the most
important factors in the format. He claimed Adelaide, which usually hosts the
day-night match in Australia, has a more forgiving pitch, but this Brisbane
surface was a little too firm to be optimal, meaning the ball got soft inside
the first hour.
“Think this wicket is pretty similar to the game
we played Pakistan [in 2016-17]. In that game [the ball] went soft pretty
early, there were a lot of dead patches where it was hard to score and wasn’t
much in the wicket for the bowlers. Pakistan were about 450 chasing 490. Feels
a bit like a similar wicket where it’s a little bit too firm. Think it would be
a fantastic red-ball wicket, but probably too firm for the pink ball.”