Australia VS England: Mitchell Starc's comeback banished the ghosts of the 2022 T20 World Cup
It's no secret that coming into the three-match ODI series against England, Australia pace bowler Mitchell Starc had been going through something of a lean patch
England were stunned by Mitchell StarcAs a result, he had a pretty ordinary World Cup by his standards. He wasn't among the wickets and, more often than not, looked very off-colour.
However, in the ODI series against England, he looked like a reborn bowler. It was especially true in the second ODI, where he wrote a unique record.
As things stand, Starc has now taken 22 wickets in the first over from a total of 76 ODI innings. That is a frighteningly consistent showing on his part.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">26.1 – Mitchell Starc's strike rate with the ball in ODI cricket is the best in the format's history among bowlers with at least 100 ODI wickets.<br><br>An ODI titan.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AUSvENG?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AUSvENG</a> <a href="https://t.co/TY8RmTU0nI">pic.twitter.com/TY8RmTU0nI</a></p>— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) <a href="https://twitter.com/WisdenCricket/status/1594194575949561862?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 20, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
And to make things better, he ended the second ODI with respectable figures of 4-47 in his ten overs as Australia sealed the match – and the series.
It is, in many ways, a far cry from the bowler who looked so lost in the T20 World Cup that he was rested in Australia's last – and must-win – game of the Super 12s.
In his place was the Starc we all knew – he looked to bowl fast and made early inroads, fully aware that his speed makes even the slightest of movement troublesome to deal with in the early parts of the innings.
And that is where the hosts won the match. If the T20 World Cup was any indicator, England is at their best when their openers get them off to a quick start.
However, once Starc removed Roy and Dawid Malan, it was always going to be an uphill task – even though James Vince and Sam Billings put together a partnership that nearly rescued the match.
And so Australia have beaten a fatigued England and will doubtless be proud of their showings. But it is still a little early to say whether Starc is fully back in form.
Remember, his poor run of form has vastly extended to T20I cricket – and one of the theories around his lack of record in this format came down to him essentially skipping franchise league cricket to prioritise his international career.
It was in many ways a praiseworthy thing – he was available to play for his country at high personal cost, given how much he could make in these tournaments due to his fearsome reputation.
However, that reputation is now waning – and will continue to weaken as long as his T20 form remains an issue.
His bowling in the longer formats – ODIs and Tests that is – have remained good, so it is surprising to see him do well in the ODI series.
But that does not take away from the fact that there remain doubts over the long-term validity of Mitchell Starc, the T20 bowler, at least for the time being.