Threatening, durable, learning – what makes Starc elite?

The Mitchell issue in England dates back a generation.

It started with Mitchell Johnson’s ferocity in 2013, when Peggy Mitchell was still in charge of Albert Square, and has since grown even more so thanks to Mitchell Starc’s left-arm wizardry.

Starc has taken 26 wickets in the Ashes series from 2025 to 26, his seventh of his career, stepping up in the absence of pacemen who are frequently more criticized.

The 35-year-old’s Summer of Starc, which he has also outscored three of England’s top order with the bat, marks the height of a Test career that is based on resilience, wicket-taking ability, and a desire to grow.

On the list of all-time Test wicket-takers, he has overtaken Curtly Ambrose, Harbhajan Singh, Shaun Pollock, and, most importantly, Wasim Akram over the past six weeks.

Starc became the most effective left-arm pace bowler in Test history by downing Wasim.

And when he plays his home ground for the fifth Test this week, it will be his 27th appearance in a row, a total of four Tests that have been squandered.

A 20-year-old Starc was given a “harden up” warning by then-Australia coach Tim Nielsen, with an expletive included, a distant memory.

According to Nielsen, “At the time, it might have pricked him a little bit, and that’s probably the role to challenge players and try to make them better than they have been in the past or be mentally or physically stronger,” he says.

“Probably one of the conversations you had with a lot of young fast bowlers, especially once they started playing international cricket.

He said he was a little sore and might need a little rest, and that there were probably a few more than that.

Australia coach Andrew McDonald has mentioned the possibility of Starc, the oldest of the world’s top pace trio, touring England for the 2027 Ashes by the age of 37.

The last Australian to wear a baggy green after turning 37 years old was Ray Lindwall, who played his final Test in 1960.

In doing so, Starc would become only the fifth pace bowler to take 500 wickets in Tests, following James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Glenn McGrath, and Courtney Walsh.

You can get there with durability. You must also be threatening in order to join that group.

Former England international Dawid Malan, who has faced Starc twice as he has played in white-ball cricket for the past two Ashes tours, says, “The strange thing, even though he is so good, is that at the top of his mark you can see what he is trying to do.”

You still need to be able to play it, but you can also see his attempts to swing it and his wobble seam.

Starc has said he has made peace with his past experiences when he has been accused of leaking runs during his career.

His ability to take wickets significantly outweighs that fact.

Only Dale Steyn and Waqar Younis, two of the top bowlers who have scored more than 350 Test points, have done so with a better strike rate than Starc.

I always felt like I was in the wrong with him, Malan says.

“I thought I was seeing the ball well because he has such nice action, and while there are good pitches in Australia, he would bowl an absolute jaffa and you would just be walking back,” he said.

You don’t relax, but you still believe I’ve got him here, I say. I’m in’.

“He will suddenly bowl a half volley because he has searched for something, a cut ball, and a ball that starts in the middle and knocks my off pole out of the ground.”

His ability, which he held from the beginning, is no longer declining.

He was “very tall,” according to Nielsen, and he had a really good air speed that struck me as admirable.

The ball could also be swung back into the right-hander.

Starc’s main strategy during the first two-thirds of his career was to swing the ball and crash into the toes, pads, or grille like Johnson, Wasim, and so many other left-armers before him.

However, Starc had already added the wobble seam delivery when he returned to England in 2023 after being dropped during the 2019 Ashes tour.

Since the start of that 2023 series, no one in the world has taken more than Starc’s 118 Test wickets. Even India star Jasprit Bumrah is in a 12-point lead in his career at the height of his career.

A significant cause of the wobble seam was.

Former Australia pace bowler Jason Gillespie says, “Mitchand Starc just shows you can teach an old job new tricks.”

He spoke with Stuart Broad and James Anderson about it and spoke with them.

“It’s fantastic for a player between the ages of 34 and 35 to take their stride and improve.”

Starc’s game is now more mysterious thanks to the wobbler.

Some deliveries snag unexpectedly off the surface after pitching when hurling the ball down with a wobbling seam rather than trying to hoop it. Others will advance straight and in the direction of the outside edge.

In the series’ opening episode, Zak Crawley and Joe Root both experienced wobble balls.

In the last three years, Starc has seen a rise in the percentage of slip-catching dismissals by almost 10%.

According to Gillespie, “the secret to the wobble seam is to have your fingers and wrists directly in front of the ball and release it from your middle finger.”

Mitchell Starc will hold the ball with the seam angled in the direction of the gully while utilizing the wobble seam.

The batter is left in doubt because it will “wobble down the pitch” if you release it just in time.

Because he believes that wobble seam coming across brings the keeper into play and makes his inswinger to the right hander more unexpected, “he has been working hard at developing that.”